The Ill-Tempered Klavier by Ben Shive has been in rotation
on my MP3 player for nearly a year. My two teen daughters also
love these melodic world-weary gems. So yes, I'm overdue for a
review.
For years Ben Shive was the right-hand man for Andrew Peterson, a
man often called "The next Rich Mullins." I like the music of
Peterson but only rarely does it's hook dig deep, unlike the music
of Rich Mullins where the hooks pierced my soul with alarming
regularity. This slightly-warmer-than-lukewarm attitude toward
Peterson's music had the effect of my moseying over to Ben Shive's
music instead of running. As was the case of Twisted Sister
leading me to Alice Cooper and Yngwie Malmsteen leading me to
Nicolo Paganini which led to the entire world of classical music,
The Ill-Tempered Klavier stands as tall or taller than my
favorite album by Andrew Peterson.
Klavier is his first album, an experiment and much-needed
outlet. The songs are mostly piano-based light rock, often
encouraging while being just a bit sad. There are Christian
truths artfully expressed in some of the songs but mostly these
are just darn good songs with a depth and intelligence rarely found in pop music. The
mellotron flutes at the beginning of "Out of Tune" signal the
listener that an adventure is at hand. Written in 3/4 this
uplifting song has good movement, building with interesting
instrumentation that calls out to God to "find the melody in me if You
can." There's so much going on in this song, from orchestral
bells to natty guitars to theramin-like sounds and layers of
vocals but Shive never lets things get muddy or out of hand. As
on the other songs on this album, the orchestration is never massive
like a symphony but rather full yet quaint, like that found on
Pet Sounds. A song of overcoming the hardships of this
life with God's help, "Rise Up" begins quietly with piano and
voice but when the shimmering guitars enter at 1:30 I found myself
thinking of Magical Mystery Tour-era Beatles. Chuffing strings
accompany a beat that becomes more pounding further down the road
and my pulse quickens to match, realizing that this guy loves The
Beatles as much as he does The Beach Boys. The romantic and
upbeat "Do You Remember" is most certainly influenced by The Beach
Boys with it's peppy 50s rock feel and nostalgic lyrics about proposing
to his wife. For some reason the music of Rick Altizer comes to
mind when hearing this song.
What is it about a solo piano that
can sound so forelorn? Whatever it is, "4th of July" has that
lonely feel. The light strings that hover above a tranquil lake
of calm, eventually becoming a gush of sound, certainly add to the
feel. As good as this song is, though, it's got nothing on "97",
a brutally honest soft rock song about Ben's past that refuses to
place blame. The lyrics begin with: "The year my brother went
away / The song got sad / And I woke up one day / Feeling so funny
I forgot to laugh / Like I was all up in my head / And no way out
/ And sad for nothing, just sad / Every day was down. / It happened
overnight." As my daughter would say, "Don't ya just want to hug
him?"
Ben has a knack for writing sweet yet honest love songs. Lyrics
like "This year / I'm gonna love you better than last year" found
in the 70s piano light rock song "New Year" lets out the secret
that we don't always treat those we love as we should. "The Old
Man" shakes things up by replacing the piano with strings and
finger plucked acoustic guitar as Shive examines a wasted life
with lines like "Seeds in packets never sown / The Oldsmobile he
barely drove," ending with the warning "Unless the seed is sown /
The flower hidden never opens." If I'm quoting too much it's only
because it's rare that I find an album where the quality of the
lyrics match that of the music... it's a double whammy, kids! How
about trying these on for size: "Tell me why are we born with
these souls inside / That burst and break us open?" Yes, "Nothing
for the Ache" examines the futility of things to fill the void in
each of us, something "You'll notice when you lie in bed awake /
Feeling like you're falling." There's a bit of doo-wop here but
also more Pet Sounds and a big ol' triple scoop of yearning. A
final capper and then I'll shut up. "Binary Star" is an old-timey
jaunty piano song about lonely Neville who is looking for love in
a song which goes through a number of interesting changes in it's
two minutes of life, although the song flows as naturally as
life.
What's even better than an amazing album packed with melodic pop gems masterfully performed? How about this same album for free? Give it a few spins and then circle back and give the man his due. As for me, I'm finally heading to Noisetrade to pick up his second album!
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