CD Review: Ben Harper's Both Sides Of The Gun - Page 2

"The Way You Found Me" is a less-political blues-heavy romantic lament that one could have been about a number of times in one's life. Knowing the 'rules to lust', unfortunately, is not the same as following them. "take me as i am/or leave me the way you found me"

The second CD wraps up with "Serve Your Soul", a Dylan-esque call to 'listen to the wind' and remember that 'trust never sleeps'. The track has two sides to it, like the album, the first a harder, electric-guitar driven section, followed by a long harmony-filled instrumental structure that builds up high and doesn't fall.

Turning to the first CD, "Morning Yearning", one finds a more laidback expression of musical artistry. The title track provides multiple interpretations of the phrase 'morning yearning', evidently drawn from personal memory. "baby crying kept us up all night/with her morning yearning"

"Waiting For You" continues the romantic air, from the perspective of the lover separated from his object. Identity here is defined by the amorous other, as for all lovers.

"Picture In A Frame" further drills into personal melancholia. The slow-tempo music complements the tragic lyrics well, and the imagery creates a memory that lingers."so many wasted days/the past is so hard to get out from under/so many words that i wish i could say/the future rattles my bones weak like thunder."

"Never Leave Lonely Alone" is reminiscent of Hopper's Nighthawks in imagery — the cavernous maw of the 'big city' consumes all its denizens, the 'old man at the lunch counter', the 'small town girl'."unspoken rules of solitude/wound without a trace/a lifetime of dreams roll down your face/all that we can't say/is all we need to hear/when you close your eyes/does the world disappear?"

"Sweet Nothing Serenade" needs no words, and requires a specific mood to be listened to, that again, needs no words to describe.

The melancholy begins to feel overlong with "Reason To Mourn," despite it's beauty as a song. There is indeed 'more to life than what makes you cry'.

"More Than Sorry" reminds one of an early Simon & Garfunkel track.

"Cryin' Won't Help You Now" carries the lament of heartbreak into the wasteland of loneliness, where 'the poets have all put down their pens'.

"Happy Everafter In Your Eyes" ends the CD with a promise, and a Cat Stevens-style song.

So there we have it — politics and loneliness — both themes enough for epics to be written, ballads to be sung, as indeed they are.

Article Author: Aaman Lamba

Aaman Lamba is a Blogcritics editor, as well as the Publisher of Desicritics.org, a Blogcritics network site covering media, politics, culture, sports and more with a global South Asian focus

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