Ben Lee - Ripe (Album)
» Ben Lee to tour Australia with a whole bunch of friends - August 8, 2005
» Ben Lee + Missy Higgins - Tolosa Park, Tas - October 19, 2005
» Ben Lee - self realisation is not a dirty word - July 14, 2005
When I first heard 'Love Me Like the World is Ending', the first single off Ben Lee’s new album Ripe, I was hopeful about what we could expect of the whole record. It showed that Mr. Lee hadn’t lost the positive outlook we saw on his last album, Awake is the New Sleep. He’d even chosen a love-themed song to be the first taste of the record, just as he had done on his previous release with its first single 'Gamble Everything for Love'.
I didn’t even really think about the fact that 'Love Me Like the World is Ending' was indeed another song about love. It’s so catchy and upbeat it’s easy not to think about it seriously, and there’s nothing unusual about it to make you question its motives anyway. When I got the album and inspected it though, the first thing I noticed was that four of the songs (out of a total of twelve) referred to love in their titles. You’ve got the aforementioned 'Love Me Like the World is Ending', then there are 'Is this how Love’s Supposed to Feel?' and 'Sex Without Love', topped off with the mother of all clichés in 'Birds and Bees'.
As the CD starts, the first two tracks lure you in with their upbeat melodies and lyrics. Then you get hit with 'Birds and Bees', the clichéd boy/girl love song duet with Mandy Moore. You could even enjoy the simplistic rhymes and sugary-sweet lyrics if, as it turns out, the rest of the album wasn’t one long, drawn-out continuation of the same theme – love, love, love. You remember those songs that didn’t even mention love in their titles? Yep, they’re about love too. In fact, it would be easier to name the songs on the album that are NOT about love, since there are only three out of the whole twelve tracks.
'What Would Jay-Z Do' is the most notable of these non-love-based tracks on Ripe. As the title suggests, it’s a (desperately needed) light-hearted song that gives listeners a break from all the tracks that came before it (and those that are about to come). 'Sex Without Love' is also worth a mention as it persists with the record’s love theme but in a refreshing way by discussing a lack of love.
As the album finishes, I feel like I’m drowning in a sea of love, and not in a good way. I’m all for people being in love, and I’m all for expressing that through song, but the bluntness and repetition of it on this album makes it hard to take in one go. Lyrics like “Cos hurt is the question / And love is the answer” and “Love is a reason to exist” almost slap you across the face with their less-than-subtle message.
Die hard fans of Ben Lee will probably overlook the theme of this album and find its merits, but if your relationship with Mr. Lee is a bit rocky you may want to sit this one out.
