Northern Irish singer-songwriter Ben Glover returns with his new offering, And The Sun Breaks Through The Sky on Friday, April 26th his first since his Sweet Wild Lily EP of 2020.
Glover took an altogether different approach to this recording, starting back in 2019 he sat down to start working on his next album but the shamdemic took effect and what started out as the usual artistic process turned into a four-year journey of self-exploration and musical freedom.
Glover had been a consistent recording artist, getting into the rhythm of releasing new music every two years or so, but this recording is arriving after a four-year gap, so the thirst from his fan base will be immense. The great news for Ben is that in that time, Americana and good old-fashioned songwriting have remerged as a fully appreciated art form once again, the gig-going public has matured and a new generation of people are pounding the pavements seeking comfort in subdued tones of a quality musician and their band of merry men or ladies.
Ben’s kicks off his new recording with ‘Make My Way Home’ the strum of an acoustic guitar against the ghostly piano while Ben’s glorious voice pulls it all together, the addition of harmonising vocals as the chorus comes in feels like a warm blanket on a cold summers evening. As the song grows what you get is that magical sauce that a cohort of stellar musicians bring to recording such as this, the space they leave in the songs as not to overwhelm the senses, but allow the song itself to shine and bloom where it needs to. This is what you get when you take your cute Northern Irish ass off to Music City, Nashville, Tennessee to lay down you life’s work. The album itself was Produced by Ben Glover and Dylan Alldredge, Recorded and Engineered by Dylan Alldrdege at Skinny Elephant Recording, Nashville and Mastered by Alex McCollough at True East Mastering. It has the most sublime attention to detail, the subtle nuances you experience across this recording send shivers down your spine.
The glorious sound quality should be experienced in isolation, lights dimmed, whiskey in your hand and just lose yourself for the plus minutes it takes you to consume it in one whole serving. That in itself is a lost art, the digital age has robbed us of the patience to do so but I highly recommend you do. The great news is Ben is back, the album is packed with a glorious collection of songs that hark back to the days of Dylan and Don McClean that just stop you in your tracks, brutal honesty spilled out onto pages late at night, transposed and brought to life through a recording studio for us to savour at our own pace. In a world lost in translation, bereft of common sense, desperately craving some honesty, As The Sun Breaks Through The Sky will help ground you.
A perfect collection of light, ethereal tracks with a beautiful balance of hope and melancholy
If you are one of the Ben Glover army of fans patiently awaiting it’s release, thankfully you don’t have too much longer to wait. It is easy to understand once you have lost yourself in this recording why Ben has been garnering so much attention over recent years, what we need to do now is turn up, turn up and turn out for our artistic community when they take the time to pass through our towns, cities and infamous musical venues big or small, we can take them all for granted but these are the magical memories you’ll cling onto in years to come.
One such magical occasion will be The Album Launch for As The Sun Breaks Through The Sky on May 8th at The Black Box, so be there or be square.
