Every Kingdom

Ben Howard’s musical childhood

It is really obvious and it goes without saying that upbringing plays a great role in every person’s life. Some parents want their children to become lawyers or accountants, while others, on the contrary, encourage their child’s interest for art and creativity by all possible means. Ben Howard’s parents have always been fascinated by music and they passed that passion to their son. Due to his parents, Ben learned about the most significant bands of sixties and seventies in his very childhood. Later in one of the interviews the musician stated that creativity of Joni Mitchell and Bob Dylan were the biggest influences for him. These are notable and interesting guides indeed, however with time Howard developed his own unique style. Folk and rock merged within his compositions, and a little bit dark lyrics just added some charm. Ben started performing in Devonshire, his native area, and the audience was really pleased by his songs. The geography of Howard’s concerts was gradually growing, so he began performing far from his county. The talented musician got his well-deserved portion of attention, which is actually not a surprise, after all. Some time later it was quite difficult to get a ticket to his show. Thereby Ben stated about himself in a confident way and pretty soon he got an offer from the record label. The musician accepted it and started working on his very first studio album. The release of the long play titled Every Kingdom took place in autumn of 2011, so now everybody has a great chance to get acquainted with the creativity of that young and truly promising artist.

The cosy album Every Kingdom

So, the autumn folk-rock Every Kingdom is now available for everybody. There is no doubt that acoustic compositions and nice and assuasive sound will be really enjoyed by all lovers of calm and highly melodiousness music. The album’s opening act is a composition Old Pine, which in its turn is an excellent example of the professional skills of acoustic guitar playing. Major chords alongside with fine plunking really do sound awesome with Ben’s delicate vocals. Diamonds, Everything and many other songs will demonstrate excellent arrangements as well: the total absence of extra and useless elements and sounds is satisfying. The author feels his songs very well, jus as it is supposed to be. The extraordinary atmosphere of the record is worth mentioning as well, because folk is known for its special mystery for a reason. Every Kingdom has the fairy tail mood, and that story, which is brought to us by Ben, is not always so sunny and merry. Besides the life-asserting songs, the album also included sad and lyrical compositions, such as Black Flies or Bones. Anyways, all of them complete each other perfectly, while two concert tracks will give listeners an opportunity to feel the atmosphere of the musician’s live performances.

Acoustic sound never gets old

It seems that the most important elements of Every Kingdom are the acoustic guitar and Ben’s voice. And that is just excellent, actually: well done and elaborated arrangements let us enjoy the artist’s songs in full volume and these arrangements definitely do not overload compositions. Every Kingdom is that kind of albums, which prove that digital processing, so popular and wide-spread nowadays, is not a necessary one and that it does not guarantee the success. Music lovers have always been attracted by beautiful music and lyrics, first of all. And Howard has no problems with these aspects. The artist started his career in a confident way and he managed to achieve the acknowledgment of the listeners. Well, the debut album Every Kingdom is a successful one; that is just unquestionable. Now we will wait for Howard’s following creations, and we have all the chances to suppose that the musician has a great future. He is talented and he has a lot of ideas for realization, so Every Kingdom is just the beginning.