Ben Davis "Aided and Abetted"

Ben Davis
Aided and Abetted
Lovitt Records


Although it bounces a bit between pop ballads, slow heartbreakers, and upbeat rockers, Aided and Abetted is a fine, and cohesive, effort from Ben Davis, of Bats and Mice, Sleepytime Trio and Milemarker fame.

Aided and Abetted is an old school album, with Davis at the controls as a group of almost 20 musicians and 4 producers come together. Musicians and producers used to work this way years ago. When producers were locked into a specific label, and just produced whatever they were asked to; and artists used a plethora of studio musicians as the stars on their albums.

The problem with the multiple project, and musician, approach is that sometimes producers couldn’t work as well with a certain artist or genre, and musicians, even if they were all greatly talented, didn’t always make good music together.

However, the producers and musicians on Aided and Abetted sound like they’ve always worked together. The production is gentle and understated, and the musicians step into Davis’s songs like their favorite pair of pants. The record has a warm feel, with songs often based around piano and soft guitars, and Davis’s singing and songwriting is generally impressive.

The album begins with the piano driven “Departure Warning,” a soft rocker, with a little Stevie Wonder and Hall and Oates sound. Next, comes “Time a Bind.” It’s a song about moving on, moving past mistakes, and has kind of a psychedelic/jangly guitar play base, reminiscent of a Sonic Youth ballad. Aimee Argote, of Des Ark, lends Davis some vocal help, singing the refrain “Don’t file/ the blame/ across the states/ that were blinded by winter now.”

Track 3, “Old and Played” is less impressive than the first two, with Davis’ voice going all falsetto – his pure vocals, as opposed to the sound manipulated ones, are always better on this album - and the bassline just falling asleep. But, track 4 “Blue-Hearted Sleeve” is the best thing on the album; the second best being “In Either Words” and third being “Forced Escape Canoe,” all more rocking songs.

“Blue-Hearted Sleeve” is the second longest track on the album, it’s the tale of a character that finds a ring, and contemplates heartbreak. The track is big, swelling with some string sounds and guided by a catchy guitar riff from Argote, and wonderful piano work from Davis and Eddie Sanchez, of Fing Fang Foom.

“Underdawg” comes next, feeding off of “Blue-Hearted Sleeve” and stepping it up a bit with big distorted power chords leading into some more catchy guitar sliding work from Argote. The track sounds kind of like a melancholy Interpol tune, and jumps into “Crawler” another piano steered track, that is a little more “elevator music” than it should be.

Anyway, all 11 tracks are nicely done, they lack any incredible “ummph” or http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifinspiration, but they are easy on the ears. The mixture of male and female vocals lends some nice variety to the songs, and the musicians – Argote, Cornbread Compton, of Engine Down, Jonathan Fuller, of Denali, and Dave Laney, of Milemarker, among them – fit into Davis’ subdued rock schematic excellently.

Now, if I had to see this band live, I’m not sure that I’d stay, because of some of the slow parts and a couple tired songs, but Davis - his singing, guitar/bass/piano playing self - has put his name to a decent album that could go up in a CD collection near the Mendoza Line or maybe some Aloha or Faint albums, and receive a spin or two each year.

Listen to Green Forestry Ranger from Aided and Abetted HERE.