Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals – Call It What It Is (2016)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 40:58 minutes | 451 MB | Genre: Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download – Source: HDTracks | © Stax Records/Concord Music
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals will follow up their triumphant 2015 reunion tour with Call It What It Is, their first new studio album in nine years. The band also announced the initial leg of their forthcoming Call It What It Is World Tour, which kicks off April 2nd in New York, and will take the band around the world throughout much of 2016.
It took Ben Harper nine years to reconvene the Innocent Criminals for 2016’s Call It What It Is, but that’s not necessarily an abnormally long time for this crew: eight years separated its 2007 predecessor Lifeline from their 2009 debut, Burn to Shine. Harper formed the Innocent Criminals partially with the intention that they’d be his Band of Gypsies, a support system for him to indulge in his Jimi Hendrix daydreams, but they wound up being an even better outlet for his soulful side. Despite “Pink Balloon” and the ham-fisted opener “When Sex Was Dirty” — bluesy bluster that pulls this closer to Lenny Kravitz than Hendrix — Call It What It Is is largely devoted to this blissed-out, mellow vibe. Part hippie blues and part Impressions, with just a dose of sunsplash reggae, this is an album for chilling at sunset. Harper may attempt grand statements — when he’s wishing for a time when sex was dirty, it’s not a carnal yearning; he associates it with a time when the air was also clean — but what matters on Call It What It Is isn’t what he’s saying, but how he’s saying it. And that’s where the Innocent Criminals come into play. The group gives Harper’s tunes warmth and elasticity, opening them up with ease and letting them breathe. When he’s backed by the Innocent Criminals, Harper never seems to be trying too hard, and that’s why Call It What It Is is a cut above many of his records. ~~AllMusic Review by Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Tracklist:
1 When Sex Was Dirty 03:50
2 Deeper And Deeper 04:03
3 Call It What It Is 03:48
4 How Dark Is Gone 03:39
5 Shine 03:56
6 All That Has Grown 03:26
7 Pink Balloon 02:22
8 Finding Our Way 04:15
9 Bones 03:22
10 Dance Like Fire 03:10
11 Goodbye To You 05:07
Personnel:
Ben Harper − vocals, guitar, slide guitar
Juan Nelson − bass, background vocals
Leon Mobley − percussion, bongos, cabasa, clave, congas, djembe, flexitone, music stand, shakere, tambourine, triangle, viber flap, wind
chimes, whirly tube, background vocals
Oliver Charles − drums, djun djun, background vocals
Jason Yates − Hammond B3, piano,
Fender Rhodes, Wurlitzers, clavinet d6, guitar, background vocals
Michael Ward − guitars, background vocals
Jaclyn Harper – additional vocals on “Pink Balloon”
Claire Wadsworth – additional vocals on “When Sex Was Dirty”
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