Top 5- Alec Benjamin

Every artist should have a square logo, preferably on a black background. It just makes things easier for fish brain over here. I mean, at least I found one.

And, we’re back, guys! The vote this week was close, but Alec Benjamin here won by 1 vote. 2 to 3.

So that makes him the focus of this week’s post.

He seems to only have one album (full-length) thus far, which means that I may do a comparison post, which means lucky you!

Or maybe not.

I’ve only listened to one or two of these songs before, and my favorite out of the three I know isn’t on this list, but hey. Hopefully today’s analysis will be better than last week.

*shudders*

Today’s song list is as follows: Let Me Down Slowly, Boy In The Bubble, If We Have Each Other, Water Fountain, and Outrunning Karma.

Well, saddle up, boys and girls, because we’re headed to Arizona.

Let me down slowly

*drops from ledge*

This starts off nice. There’s something about guitar.

Listening to the words, whoa. This song is sad. Part of it is the words themselves, and part of it is the way he’s singing it.

Here it comes. It’s another visual song. Here’s my current interpretation. (This was done without watching the video first, so I have no idea if this is what the video is like.)

We begin at sunrise, looking at a house, maybe on the coast. Then, we’re looking inside, at a darkened kitchen, pink light from the sunrise and the silhouettes of trees in the sliding-glass door. Someone is moving through the room, around an island in the center of the room. (what they look like is up to you.) There’s a quick close-up of the person’s fingertips brushing the corner of the counter. They look back once, over their shoulder, and then slip out.

As the door clicks shut, we cut to a shot of another person (again, what they look like is up to you) lying in bed on their side facing the camera, their eyes open. The covers are pulled up to their chin, and they’re curled in on themselves. They’ve heard everything. Tears fill their eyes.

This is just the first verse, without the prechorus. The song is doing a good job of conveying the feeling of hopelessness, enough that you can see a pretty clear picture. Or, at least I can.

As for the rest of the song, the meaning gets clearer. The person singing knows that their relationship is doomed to fail, maybe that the other person doesn’t love them anymore, and they’re pleading with the other person to be gentle, to spare them the pain. It’s so heartfelt, and his voice is so full of emotion, and it’s overall an incredibly emotional song.

[also, fun parallel. it’s about his first relationship. remind you of anything? no? mr. brightside reference again.]

Boy in the bubble

*takes out safety pin with evil smile* not for long.

This one is different to start. Actually, scrap that. The entire thing is different.

This one is telling more of a story, then telling an emotion.

The first verse tells us how he came home injured, and his mother asked him what happened. The pre-chorus builds up suspense, ending with ‘I told this kid I’m ready for a fight’. There’s a moment of silent suspense, and then the chorus starts.

It’s then directed at the kid, telling them, essentially, that it doesn’t matter what they do, because he won’t react. (‘I know you want the satisfaction/it’s not going to happen.’) It also talks about liking the pain, but it never seems to explain why. If anyone wants to help with that, feel free.

The second verse gives us an account of exactly what happens, and continues the idea of liking the pain. The pre-chorus and chorus repeat, but then we have a parallel.

The first verse starts with ‘It was 6:48, I was walking home’. Then, in the third verse says ‘It was 6:48, he was walking home.’

It’s talking about bullying from two perspectives; the bullied and the bully. It talks about not giving in, and how it’s the bully who’ll suffer ultimately. But, it also talks about why the bully came after him. I don’t know if this is true or not, but that’s not important. It does say ‘well, there’s no excuse for what he did’, but it is playing with the idea that there is more to the story than what first comes across. It’s something that’s important to remember in real life as well.

If we have each other

This is a good one, so I’m going to start right away.

This song tells three different stories, all linked by the choruses. So, let’s begin.

Story 1:

This one’s a story of a 19-year-old girl who’s pregnant, and working alone to provide for herself. It says she’s ‘clinging to the feeling that her luck was going to change.’ She doesn’t want to be alone, as explained in the pre-chorus.

The chorus says that no, the world isn’t great, but they can get through it if they have each other.

Story 2:

The next one tells us about two 90-year-olds who have been through everything together, and are never apart. It says ‘life was never easy’, but they’re still sticking together.

The chorus is the same.

Story 3:

This one’s about his sister, and how he’s scared of being alone, and how she’s always been there for him. This verse is a little more obviously personal, and it actually addresses this, saying that he wrote this verse for her.

Same chorus.

Overall, this song is saying that yeah, the world sucks, but people can get through anything… as long as they’re not alone.

water fountain

This might be the longest intro on the list.

I’m just gonna get straight into the meaning.

It’s talking about innocence at first, but then it moves on, to the girl being with someone else, and forgetting about things she’d said before. The second verse shows us him missing her, wishing he was with her. Almost jealousy.

(turning saints into the sea) (swimming through sick lullabies) (choking on your alibis) (but it’s just the price I paid) (destiny is calling me) (open up my eager eyes) (cause I’m Mr. Brightside)

*bows*

The choruses instead say that they were ‘too young’, and imply that he wasn’t ready when she said she loved him, and that’s why they fell apart.

(the Mr. Brightside parallels in this list are killing me here)

(time to cry)

(cue tears)

Outrunning karma

Well, karmadillos never really marched in time, so that shouldn’t be hard.

There’s that guitar again.

So, after reading the lyrics because I’m a stupid fish brain, this song sounds like it’s talking about someone who’s done a lot of bad stuff, and instead of facing the consequences, they’re running away, ‘outrunning karma’, as it were.

Time for some more visuals.

It starts with the sun setting over a desert. Slowly, we move closer, and a figure becomes clearer. (what they look like is up to you). Their breathing becomes audible, fast and almost panicked. They’re running, running, running, and then they stop. They rest their hands on their knees and try to catch their breath.

Then, we see a collection of images: the person walking through a marketplace, getting noticed by police, pulling their hood over their head. We know they’re running, but from what?

conclusion

Some of these songs are better than the others. It’s not my favorite, but worth a second look.

Honourable Mention: Paper Crown

This was the first Alec Benjamin song I ever listened to, and it’s not on Google Play anymore which is sad. It’s my favourite, though, and the video is beautiful, so you should listen to it.

The visuals were a fun thing to try. Tell me if you liked it or if you thought it was dumb. I write to music a lot, and some of the things I’ve written have been directly influenced by that, but I’ve never written with music as a prompt like that. I might make that a series of posts, if you guys liked this?

I’m sorry it wasn’t all that long, but sometimes there’s only so much I can do for one song.

And also, the name of this blog sucks, so any ideas for a better one would be appreciated.

Anyway, up next week is Elbow, so we can move away from the US and Australia and head for Manchester.

Finally, in the wise words of Brandon Flowers, Dave Keuning, Mark Stoermer, and Ronnie Vanucci:

We hope you enjoyed your stay. It’s good to have you with us, even if it’s just for the day.

See ya next week!