Benjamin Dean Wilson - Small Talk

by Maarten Schiethart

published: 30 / 5 / 2016

Label: Tapete Records
Format: CD

Surprising debut album from Tulsa, Oklahoma-based stand-up comedy balladeer Benjamin Dean Wilson with a knack for rhyming words and hitting chords

Review

Too sardonic and self-deprecating for his own sake perhaps, Benjamin Dean Wilson's over-ambition deserves admiration. His songs on 'Small Talk' touch on sarcasm, even in melody. A one-man band home studio project edging on over-confidence, Benjamin Dean Wilson with his unlimited vocabulary scats consistently stuns. While his language and sense of humour are very American, he did, however, post a video in which he acted like an English dandy. An ironic newcomer from nowhere, Benjamin Dean Wilson masters jigs as he throws groovy jibes. His simple and very light-hearted songs, his usually nasal voice and his funny stories turn the album in to cabaret, but with a lot better music than is usual in cabaret. When fully at ease, he boasts a smooth baritone, like a wise singing and narrating clown. With a few tongue-in-cheek puns about people in the news, 'Small Talk' is both topical as well as personal. An educated man of proven good taste, he shows an amazing amount of confidence for a debutant. The epic close to 'Small Talk' clocks in at fourteen minutes. The rather elaborate 'Rick, I Tick Tock' works like a mini opera, and is worth almost every second. A great surprise and discovery.