Ben Howard: "Old Pine"

Take a walk with Juke Box Hero as he introduces us to a great track by an English guy named Ben Howard.

In listening to music, as with experiencing any art form, we allow ourselves to be taken somewhere; we follow the artist into the world they’ve created. Whether they really lead us anywhere is up to them, but that’s what’s great about consuming art: opening oneself to – nay, seeking out – new perspective, new places.

Ben Howard, a David Gray-esque twenty-something folk-popster from Devon (on England’s southwest coast), offers his perspective by taking listeners to places that are at once sweet, melodic, glimmering, shimmering, dark, brooding, and wholly enlivening. His recent debut album, Every Kingdom, is picking up steam in the U.S. and Europe after peaking inside the top ten in the U.K. Most of the beautifully constructed, nature-minded tracks buck traditional pop structure (who needs a chorus?) and are allowed more time than the average 2.5 minutes to grow and mature: What might begin as a tender, harmonic lullaby could end as a rollicking rhythmic anthem several minutes later.

"Old Pine," the opening track from Every Kingdom, is a prime example: Howard escorts the listener from a mellow hymn (perhaps a secluded hollow) to a lilting round of A and B sections (a sun-speckled forest hike?) before letting loose with the churning melodic mantra: ‘We grow, grow, steady as the morning…’ His airy tenor hovers through the verses, like wisps of morning fog burning off the wooded campsite-landscape he’s describing, until it finally soars out over the rapid strumming and a droning cello.

The "back to nature" trend in indie-pop music is immutable, with artists like Justin Vernon (Bon Iver), Fleet Foxes, First Aid Kit, etc. putting fresh legs under folk influences – and being loved for it. And Howard is right in the thick of things. A friend commented that Howard’s music makes him want to take a six-month vacation of nothing but hiking, living in the woods, and being young. Many of us wouldn’t mind doing that anyway, but with Ben as a (musical) guide, we may find ourselves enjoying the trip and its destination in ways we never imagined.