A few years ago, the firm I work for came up with a slogan for its social media hashtags (people that know me will understand I swerved this meeting…..) and it was #DreamBig.
That’s cool and all, if you like that sort of thing, but what about those who dream small, or don’t dream at all? Because they can’t afford to dream? Where’s their hashtag?
When The Simpson’s was funny, they utterly nailed this. There was an episode where they all ended up in New York and Marge says: “Oh I’ve always dreamed of being in the audience at a Broadway show.” She didn’t think big enough to actually be the star, just watch.
It is with these people in mind, surely that Ben Bostick has written “Among The Faceless Crowd”.
Back in 2018, Bostick came to my attention when he released the brilliant “Hellfire” record, a collection of songs that he wrote about the people he came across in the bar in which he was playing his residency.
He calls “…Crowd” its “sad cousin”, and one listen to its lyrics, you can see why. This is bleak, probably because the existence for most people is bleak, an obvious reference point is “Nebraska”, and interestingly it started as a “bedroom” album, but it was fleshed out with instrumentation – most of which Bostick, who moved back to Georgia since “Hellfire” to raise his children, plays himself.
It all starts, actually, with a fairly regulation country strum. “Absolutely Emily”, is the tale of a hard working man who is away from his love, but that’s almost the starter. The rest of the record is more like “Wasting Gas”. A sort of half-spoken confessional from the point of a character that can’t tell his wife he’s lost his job, and drives around with nothing but his regrets.
It is superb, though. There’s a glockenspiel in its percussion (I think, as I’ve said before I am not a musician) that is just perfect. And it’s the fact that this never does cliché, really, that is most impressive. The rhythm – never mind the words – of “Working For A Living” is claustrophobic and unsettling, and even what has a more classic country structure, such as “I Just Can’t Seem To Get Ahead” is so unremittingly unforgiving, all the character here wants is “to take my baby out for dinner now and then”, but he’s working 80 hours. See, don’t worry about dreaming “big”. Why even dream.
Bostick’s long-time guitar player Kyle LaLone adds his skills on “The Last Coast” a wonderful slice of near Americana, “least I’ll be lonely in a different place” muses the character here (they are rarely named, but its tempting to imagine that this is the people from the bar living with their demons).
And their conflicts. “The Thief” sees a man who “takes unnecessary things, from people who can afford to lose their necklaces and rings”, so his family can eat, but the first line “I am a Christian, and I don’t believe its right for someone to steal” immediately makes clear the pain.
Not to get too political on what is, after all, a music review, but “Central Valley” about the place in California, a world away from LA, and what would be the poorest state in the US if it were one, highlights the need for wealth distribution, and the desperation comes through here.
“Too Dark To Tell” is a particularly interesting track. Delivered in a real gospel way, the words are so at odds, its fabulous.
“Untroubled Mind” starts on death row, I’d like to think its “Johnny 99” from Springsteen, who is actually now on the “execution line” that he wanted to find, and “If I Were In A Novel” is the de facto title track, and it deals with the feeling that I mentioned at the start. It is for those who just dream of getting by, of getting through, unnoticed. “If I were in a movie, I’d have no lines to say”. It ends with just Bostick’s voice, and it makes for an emotional conclusion.
When I was at school, years back, we read The Grapes Of Wrath, and Steinbeck’s words had a profound effect on me. Now, particularly now, with a global depression looming, the words on this record are ever more profound. And if the ghost of Tom Joad – in all meanings of that – hangs over this record, that is only a good thing.
“Among The Faceless Crowd” is not light relief, but it is brilliant.
Rating 9/10
