Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals - Lifeline
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Ben Harper & the Innocent CriminalsEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2007-08-28
Music Label: Virgin Records Us
Soundtracks:
- Fight Outta You
- In the Colors
- Fool For a Lonesome Train
- Needed You Tonight
- Having Wings
- Say You Will
- Younger Than Today
- Put It On Me
- Heart Of Matters
- Paris Sunrise #7
- Lifeline
Free Music Notes for Lifeline
Free Music Review: 4-1/2 stars -- Saved!
Hit: 4 Stars
Perhaps I was a little harsh when I gave Ben Harper's last album Both Sides of the Gun a three-star rating. The problem I had with that album was that, well, I realize that Ben changes his style quite often (especially evident by sometimes doing collaborations with different backing bands for entire albums), but the songs on that album were a little TOO different from one another. Thankfully, things flow more smoothly on Lifeline.
Ben hooked back up with the Innocent Criminals this time around, and it's a good thing he did because the songs are excellent. Well, actually, the album's opener "Fight Outta You" has him singing in a very unorthodoxly low voice, but if you skip past that, you'll find quality in tunes like "Fool for a Lonesome Train", "Heart of Matters" and "Younger Than Today". And although "Needed You Tonight" isn't spiritual, the vocals still take me back to the There Will Be a Light days.
The instrumental track "Paris Sunrise #7" is also good, even better when it successfully flows into the title track. You won't need a lifeline to help you find great music after hearing this album, so check it out.
Anthony Rupert
Lifeline Poster
Eight albums in just over a dozen years: validation that Ben Harper--mind or body--rarely rests, be it on the road with backing jam band the Criminals or buried in a studio, where the gifted singer-songwriter lays down his brand of peace-chanting, love-tilting music. His latest is lighter on the rock, with a greater emphasis on gospel, blues, and deeply burning soul. Harper isn't concerned about letting listeners inside that soul, confessing in the title track, "I don't want to wait a lifetime/Yours or mine." The solo acoustic closer is classic wear-your-heart-on-your-sleeve, a trait that seems to drift in and out of songs like the ominous ballad "Younger than Today," which remembers earlier days being better days, or its mood-opposite "Say You Will," where the exultance of a flamboyant piano and gospel backing vocals offset cheesy lines such as "love you like a candle loves a flame." The latter is a standout, along with the bluesy opener "Fight Outta You"; the island-splashed "In the Colors," which recalls early-'70s Van Morrison; and "Put It on Me," with its brilliant lyric, "She cuts cherry pie when she looks you in the eye." All eyes, as his legion builds, are on Ben Harper. All ears, too. --Scott Holte
Ben Harper Photos
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More from Ben Harper
 Both Sides of the Gun |  Diamonds on the Inside |  Fight for Your Mind |
 Live at the Hollywood Bowl |  Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama: Live at the Apollo |  Pleasure & Pain |
At the end of a nine month European tour, Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals landed in a Paris recording studio and completed their new album, Lifeline, in just seven days. The result: a soulful masterpiece with beautifully direct lyrics, undeniable grooves and an effortless energy that recalls the best works of Otis Redding, Bill Withers and Beggars Banquet-era Rolling Stones. Yeah...it's that good.
It's no surprise that most bands today don't record albums live, straight to tape, in one room, no Pro Tools, no auto-tune. There are only a handful of modern artists that can pull it off. Since Ben & The Innocent Criminals were so musically connected after such a long tour, they entered the studio immediately. And on a sixteen track tape machine and one full week in the City of Lights, they successfully recorded and mixed an album that will sit alongside all of your old favorites...just like a classic record should.
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