Title: Awake Is the New Sleep
Artist: Ben Lee
Ben Lee has been a mainstay on alternative rock airwaves; it’s hard to believe the Australian singer/songwriter is still only 26. For album number six he comes full circle on a decade of recordings, working with producer Brad Wood (Liz Phair, Smashing Pumpkins) who spearheaded the sound of Lee’s debut record Grandpaw Would in 1995. Awake… follows a comparable blueprint of 2002’s Hey You Yes You: uncomplicated, unassuming, no-gloss pop songs. But there is evidence of a newfangled wisdom in Lee and his sketches of songwriting dexterity, which include the distinctive pop-rocker ("Catch My Disease"), the persuasive ballad ("Get Gotten"), the adoring folk number ("The Debt Collectors") and an indulgently experimental nine-and-a-half minute opus ("Light"). Code one could be the riff-fully sanguine opener ("Whatever It Is") in which the author proposes we chase our instincts, then verifies on the ensuing 13 songs that he does just that. "They might tell you that you shouldn’t," sings Lee, "But do it. Whatever it is." --Scott Holter
Review by
JACOB SAHMS
Ben Lee, who in interviews has said that he prefers an open spirituality to organized religion, released Awake is the new sleep, filled with quirky lyrics, spoken and sung words, and loads of questions about love, life and death. The lyrics and vernacular provide a conversational tone, in Lee’s sing-songish delivery, that is both simple in delivery and layered in meaning.
Beginning with “Whatever It Is,” Lee attempts to push or tempt the other into a new awareness of self that provides cause for ‘waking up.’ Sounding part self-help therapist and part-drug dealer, the song invokes the conversation that might have preceded Eve’s biting the first apple: “ There are places you can go to/yeah they’ll tell you that you shouldnt/ but do it- whatever it is.” Possibly the same ‘voice’ and possibly not, the message Lee provides is that the listeners should “Gamble Everything For Love.” While other people might try to influence your reality, Lee argues that their expectations matter less than love.
Love comes through the community in “Begin,” where Lee admits that he has become a successful sinner but he also pushes for more as well. “ im thinking about the city/its living proof people need to be together/im thinking about how I just wanna open up/and give and give and give,” Lee sings. He seems to be gaining his motivation from ‘above,’ as he credits the Other: “ im thinking about my maker/and despite all this i know she wont give up on me.” Sin has a place in his worldview, but redemption does too.
“Catch My Disease” pushes back toward nothingness, as Lee expresses a desire to leave his thinking aside and focus on nothing—this might merely be a lovelorn thought by someone whose desired doesn’t feel the same. His confusion in love continues in “Ache For You” but he seems to have found some peace of mind in “Into the Dark.” Lee says that he’s feeling better “ since i surrendered/you cant climb till/youre ready to fall” but it’s unclear whether that’s from fulfilled romantic love or divine inspiration.
In “No Right Angles,” Lee says the straight and narrow have been on his mind and in comparison/opposition, he has felt the Other surrounding him as he comes into grace. He momentarily swerves from the divine for more of his own romantic wants in “Get Gotten” but returns in “Close I’ve Come,” as he sings “ one can only guess/what would happen if/i got all my questions answered.” Part of Lee’s belief system seems to include the need for the search and not having everything made clear. Information is part of the give and take in Lee’s spirituality.
Skipping over “The Debt Collectors” and “We’re All In This Together,” “Light” serves a ‘benediction’ of sorts to the album. Lee expresses a relationship where the Other is teaching him how to live: “ you are the one who/brings the weather/you are a dream ive had forever/you know exactly what im wishing/youre gonna love me into submission.” Lee has presented a spirituality filled with exploration and love, and the need for the divine to invade everyday reality and make it a little more than human.
