iMurphy

    Rocketboom skiped their usual geek news read by hot chick routine the other day, and instead hosted a bizarre greyscale (not just black and white) animated video of birds attacking a British man in the bath. I’m seriously considering buying the album on iTunes. The song is “Bathtime in Clarkenville” by (The Real) Tuesday Weld, which samples “Sweeter than Sugah” by The Mills Brothers. It is playing over and over again in my mind; it’s an earworm.

I had typed up most of a review once already, but I’ve decided to start over. I hadn’t yet put my finger on why I like Breaking Benjamin’s CD We Are Not Alone, but it got me thinking about what makes something great. And I feel that I have encapsulated it. Superlative art is either new and done for the first time, or something old done better than ever before. Breaking Benjamin is not great in many aspects, but they have something new, in my mind.

I play music all the time. On iTunes at home, mix CD’s in my wife’s car or iPod in my car, music is everywhere present in my life. Perhaps my favorite way to listen to music is to hit “shuffle” and be unnerved by the juxtaposition of Paul Simon and Megadeath, or a Pipe Band and John Coltrane. This kind of enjoyment through schizophrenia is why I haven’t never lasted long in any band: no one is as eclectic as I am. I will never find enough people who want to play bluegrass and alternative rock in the same concert. Breaking Benjamin just begins to approach this level of genre-bending.

In the Nümetal sounds of Tool and Mudvayne, there is sub-human screaming, de-tuned distortion and jarring time-signature changes. Pop rock bands like Matchbox 20 and even Sum 41 use old-school harmonies and melodically complex, tonal vocals to sound warm and invited. Breaking Benjamin does both. Within one song! The effect is startling, but if you’re into it, breathtaking.

Don’t let my praise of their virtues distract from Breaking Benjamin’s faults, for they abound. Most of their lyrics are of the self-important, nihilistic type that remind me of Slipknot and the defeated young man from Tergenov’s “Fathers and Sons.” To quote them, they’re

Living it up, while falling from grace. There’s no way that I’m running away.

I’ve only really tried very hard to explain one song’s lyrics to myself, and that was the first track, So Cold, the big radio single and video. The lead singer talked about this song as if someone else had written the words and he himself was trying to figure them out. Best he could figure, they were something about a post-apocalyptic future. I can see that too, but they also really fit the mind of a serial killer. Or is that just because I saw Silence of the Lambs the other day? Either way, I think I would be happier if Breaking Benjamin was from Hungary and I couldn’t hope to understand their lyrics. Overall, though, their sound is so unique that I will undoubtedly return to a number of the songs in spite of themselves.