Staff Reviews

Benjamin Shaw - There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet

Review by Alex Yau

Some of the most powerful emotions can bloom from the simplest of raw moments, and Benjamin Shaw is an expert at crafting just those instances.»

User reviews

• 10/10 by tubewaybarmy
• 10/10 by AudioAntihero

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'there's always hope, there's always cabernet' is the debut album from the defiantly lo-fi benjamin shaw. nine tracks of nausea, noise, hilarious anecdote and pointed fingers. born to soiled genes in '80s blackpool and loathed in soiled scenes of 2011's london, benjamin shaw first appeared in 2009 with the 'i got the pox, the pox is what i got' ep, a fuzzing buzzing 6 tracker full of lo-fi dissonance and homicidal romance. the release went largely unnoticed but overtime picked up support from bbc 6music dj tom ravenscroft and scored a slew of rave reviews. on his debut lp benjamin shaw has brought tricks new and old. he mixes the acoustic-base of his previous work with sounds and arrangements somewhere between odd nosdam and a most disturbed / inspired brian wilson. the album even takes off into a world of unexpected art-rock and accidental shoegaze with leading single 'somewhere over the m6'. just as the album begins to feels finished, shaw shows his face once more for a 7-minute piano ballad about the incredible hulk, which positively aches and burns the way it ought. shaw describes himself as a mix of sparklehorse, hefner, the moldy peaches and gram parsons and he's halfway there. bedroom recordings with city fears of love, life, work, death and superhuman rage and noise. lots and lots of noise. and fuzz. always fuzz.
description from www.roughtrade.com