Ben Caplan – ‘Birds With Broken Wings’ [Review]
Picture a hoedown in Hell. Demons dancing around fire pits, tormented souls screaming lyrics at the top of their lungs. That kind of thing.
Birds With Broken Wings is the perfect soundtrack to that kind of party.
Recorded over three weeks of ten-hour days with a gang of Ben Caplan’s dream collaborators, you can easily hear the bloody-minded love, passion, and energy that have been poured into this album’s creation. Every second sparkles with darkness, from the opening title track’s danceable decadence through to Lovers’ Waltz, a set-climaxing love song delivered with pitch-perfect and idiosyncratic flair. Fill the gap with the likes of sour-faced ballad Belly Of The Worm; the jazz-inflected Deliver Me; Dusk‘s solemn and stately horn-led funeral march; and Devil Town‘s foggy ruminations, and you have one heck of an album in your ears.
A must-listen not just for blues fans, but also for anyone willing to take a walk on the dark side. Ben Caplan is your ideal guide.
TMMP RATING: 93%
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Birds With Broken Wings is now available in the US and Canada, and will be available in the EU from March 4. For more info, head to Ben Caplan’s official website.