Ben Birchall & The Corrections - Last Ditch Brigade

It’s taken me a long time to get round to writing this review, I’ve kept putting it off, not due to a dislike of the album, but because for the first time since I’ve arrived on the shores of Australia I’ve found an artist who clicks with something inside of me and putting that into words is a tough and daunting prospect. I’ve not found an artist or album like this since Frank Turner’s “Sleep is for the Week”, an album full of disillusionment with life past, present and future, that lyrically and musically describe almost precisely how I felt at that exact moment. Ben’s mixture of troubadour-esque acoustic stories and laid back rock led by crunchy electric guitar and organ ring true in my ears, a sure sign of my ever maturing musical tastes, no longer impressed by loud guitars and shouting. It may not connect with me so much on a lyrical level, being primarily tales of lamented loves, but that same feeling of mistakes, possible regrets, lessons learned and a new optimistic outlook on life is as equally present as Frank Turner’s offering, perhaps I identify with that feeling and process in life, no matter if the situations or motivations differ. But enough of comparisons, what of “Last Ditch Brigade”? It’s an album full of finely crafted arrangements and instrumentation demonstrating a song writing ability far beyond Ben’s years, the songs would be equally at home on a fashionable Indie Kids’ CD shelf as well as their parents’, successfully creating an album that manages to transcend genres, fashions and age groups, simply producing a damn fine album, no pretension, no filler, full to the seams with brilliant songs.

Published in www.rockus.com.au