Ben Lloyd is back with his third album, following on from 2024’s ‘Leap of Faith’, again recorded with producer Tim Julian. What is different this time is Ben wanted to record with his two sons, so Bryn (13) played all the drums while Lennox (15) provided some of the guitar solos. When I reviewed the last album, I said Ben created, “music which is too aggressive for singer/songwriter, too pop for those who want their rock to be sweaty, and too rock for those who want to be in the mainstream.” Now he has added some filthy grunge overtones, so it feels much heavier, but still with those pop elements, almost as if Creed had done the dirty with The Wildhearts as there is no doubt that Ben is maintaining the pop sensibility and melodies while going much heavier.
Ben has the “honest” approach of a Bruce Springsteen or Bryan Adams, so one feels this is someone who is here off the streets, not trying to do anything but provide blue collar rock and roll which used to be prevalent in the Seventies but sadly has been replaced by autotune and plasticity. The main issue Ben has is geography, as if he was living in America there would be plenty of places receptive to this style of music, but instead he lives in the finest country in the world, Aotearoa, where the population of 5.5 million are spread over two main islands (and a load of smaller ones) where the land mass is larger than the UK. Unless he magically triggers a viral algorithm on a streaming platform then it is unlikely he will ever get to the size of audience he so richly deserves, so he will have to stay our secret (whatever you do, don’t try and discover this…).
Bryn is a fine drummer, and if he is doing this at 13 it will be interesting to see what he will be doing in ten years’ time as he is punching hard, not sitting back but instead driving forward, while it is not possible to work out what licks are Lennox and what are Ben, so the inclusion of his sons is perfectly valid on a musical level, not just emotional.
Punch and powerful, grungy and melodic, this is nice indeed.
Rating: 7/10
Links:
https://x.com/bigbenlloyd