Benjamin – Young & Restless

“It’s like they’ve glommed together a load of ideas and nearly got a song out of it”

Tim: Here, Tom, is a track to properly start your week off.

Tom: Oh, for crying out loud, there’s no point censoring an f-bomb if it’s a rhyming word. Leaving that aside… actually, hang on, I’ve got a problem with the “It’s going down” as well, in a post-Timber world you can’t get away with that. Anyway, leaving both those aside…

Tim: A fair ask, but let’s try anyway. It’s a couple of years now since Avicii first unleashed the farmhouse genre, and it really isn’t going away any time soon, is it?

Tom: No, but there are at least some attempts at reinvention going on: there’s vocals throughout this, and it’s merged a lot more with a traditional pop song structure.

Tim: Structure’s an interesting word to use – it’s strange, because sometimes it works really well, and other times it sort of just about fits, like this. To be honest, I kind of get the feeling that it’s just been shoehorned in here underneath the, yes, structured verses to make it sound current, rather than because that’s what the song needs.

Tom: Right: although that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not sure about using an odd vocal sample rather than an actual instrument though. It’s like they’ve just glommed together a load of ideas and nearly, nearly got a song out of it — that last chorus is really good, apart from that bizarre sample.

Tim: It is, as it most of the rest of it, working absolutely fine with no real trace of any country presumptions – it’s big, it’s brash, and aside from that slightly harsh bit of autotune at the start, I’ve got no complaints about it. I just wish it didn’t sound so disjointed.