Ben Lee - The Rebirth of Venus

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 21 / 3 / 2009

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Review

‘The Rebirth Of Venus’ is Australian Ben Lee’s seventh studio album and he seems to have crammed a lifetimes worth of musical adventures into a short time (Lee is still only in his late twenties). Lee first came to notice in 1993 as part of the band Noise Addict who recorded for the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal Records. Since then a lot has happened to Lee and his songs. The television series ‘Grey’s Anatomy’ featured his song ‘Catch The Disease’ before, in 2006, the song was used in a television commercial for Dell Computers. Lee performed his song, ‘We’re All In This Together’ at the closing ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games before that song was used in a Coca Cola commercial in Australia. Not bad for a musician yet to reach his thirties. Last year Lee married Ione Skye (daughter of 60s legend Donovan) and although his later albums have been more positive maybe his marriage has inspired him even more as this latest collection of thirteen songs is absolutely brimming with happy sounds, the sound of a man who knows exactly what he is doing in his career and is content with his lot. At nearly an hour there is not one song on the album that doesn’t register immediately while not being annoyingly catchy. All too often songs that have hooks that grab you immediately lose their appeal after a few plays. Lee’s songs don’t suffer with this problem. While I can’t actually say just now that there has ever been an album that made me feel so good as quickly as ‘The Rebirth Of Venus’ did, and it takes a lot to get even my feet tapping these days, Lee, with this collection, had me wanting to dance around the room within minutes. Not a pretty sight I admit but the music on this album is so uplifting that it is hard to sit still when listening to it. Even yet another song called ‘Yoko Ono’ (has any other rock-star’s wife ever had so many songs written about her?) can’t dampen the happy vibe that emanates from almost each and every one of these thirteen songs. In again choosing Brad Wood to produce this album Lee has made the right choice. Adding a highly polished shine to songs that didn’t need to be over-produced but which needed a sympathetic touch to bring the best out in them this has resulted in an album of pure-pop that is produced, played and sung to perfection. These songs are infectious. It’s all been done before of course. Lee is aware of that I am sure. This isn’t cutting-edge music but rock-solid pop / rock which will appeal across generations and which is made to be blasted out of radios. If this was a vinyl album you could drop the needle anywhere on the grooves and within minutes, seconds even, you would be singing along completely mesmerised by the sounds you were hearing. But, as mentioned before, there is not one song on this album that even verges on being annoying even after a month of playing. There is a real art to making hook-filled pop music that doesn’t lose its appeal after a dozen or more plays. I love this album. It’s full of hooks, smart and often funny lyrics and tunes that I just can’t get enough of. ‘Wake Up To America’ with its spoken verses has a chorus that doesn’t just deserve to be played hourly on radio stations but demands to be. It’s rare that I’d go out and buy an album because the one the record company sent to us is minus the lyric book or CD inlay but I’m putting in my order for ‘The Rebirth Of Venus’ right now. In years to come this album will be referred to not only as the highpoint of Lee’s career but as a classic album.

Track Listing:-

1 What's so Bad (About Feeling Good)?
2 Surrender
3 Sing
4 I Love Pop Music
5 Rise Up
6 Yoko Ono
7 Boy with a Barbie
8 Bad Poetry
9 Blue Denim
10 Wake Up to America
11 I'm a Woman Too
12 Families Cheating at Board Games
13 Song for the Divine Mother of the Universe

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