Ben Hemming: Broken Man Review

Broken Man is the debut release from London-based singer-songwriter Ben Hemming. Beginning with the track “Black Heart,” Hemming dresses the song with a jangling guitar riff that finds itself repeated in the chorus under Hemming’s accusing echo. Clapping hands, breaking glass, and barking dogs lends ambiance to “The Old Country” while “This City” is the litany of a tired soul, a disillusioned denizen of a dark and seedy metropolis.

“What I Once Had” once again showcases Hemming’s ability to write catchy, one-off guitar riffs, and the album’s title track has a distant, scraping sound to it that gives Hemming an empty landscape which he populates with his resonant voice. Cleaner sounding than any of the preceding tracks, “I Make A Living” features clearly plucked strings accentuated by an abrading slide of the guitar while “Inclined” has a faster pace and a hypnotic, repeated drum beat.

With its distorted strings and reminiscing lyrics, the song “Cigarette Blues” is the most lamentful of the album’s tracks. Accompanied only by a continuous downpour and a distant march of percussion, the track “It Rained So Hard” is the most adventurous as well as the most sonically spacious. “Found My Way” is a vagabond’s ballad of looking for a home somewhere on the road and “Lies” is an admission of defeat set to an acoustic guitar. The album concludes with “The Road” which fittingly elevates the mood of the album with the familiarly warped instrumentation and Hemming’s lonely howl.

 Broken Man is a sonic pulverizer of the album that grabs a hold of the listener from the outset with its boot stomping, glass-chewing grind and refuses to relent for a memorable 32 minutes. This album is a must own for all fans of the music of T-Bone Burnett and all fans of electric guitars and ghostly Southern blues.

 The Review: 7.5/10

 Can’t Miss Tracks

– Black Heart
– This City
– Broken Man
– Cigarette Blues
– It Rained So Hard

 The Big Hit

– This City

Review by McKinne Sizemore

Buy the album: Amazon