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Thursday, January 30, 2020

Radical Face - beauty and catharsis on "Reveries"



















Cartharsis

Reveries by Radical Face aka Ben Cooper has a lovely melodic gaze, a sort of pause during mild downbeats that feel like one feeling something real in a deeply personal way. In some way, it made me think of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young's iconic lullaby Our House. The similarity ends there because Reveries pushes its sadness into a stirring resolve or acceptance with a big soaring chorus. It is a damn beautiful and moving piece of music, it is something Cooper is good at. Singing truths that we can relate to, can hold onto and pull out of our pockets when we need a hug or shoulder to cry on. His propensity to make us feel has brought him legions of fans and critical acclaim for his set of 3 albums (as one "conceptual saga"), The Family Tree: The Roots (2011), The Branches(2013), and The Leaves(2016). Other successes followed (see below) but enough of that. I need to sit quiet and steep in Reveries again because I need to right now. 
-
Robb Donker Curtius

https://www.radicalface.com/home












THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

When one chapter ends, another always begins. Radical Face spent eight years working on his critically acclaimed three-album conceptual saga, The Family Tree: The Roots (2011), The Branches(2013), and The Leaves(2016). Throughout that time, the Florida-born multi-instrumentalist Ben Cooper teetered on something of an existential seesaw: rising to success one moment, and plummeting into personal discord the next. With a vision birthed in a shed behind his family’s house, and out of the ashes of two finished novels that he lost on a crashed hard drive, Cooper garnered acclaim from the likes of NPR, Paste Magazine, Diffuser, The BBC, The Independent, The Wild Honey Pie, in addition to performing across multiple continents and on late night television for Last Call with Carson Daly. Meanwhile, “Welcome Home, Son” from his 2007 debut Ghost would land syncs on the trailer for the Academy®Award-winning The Descendants and on The Blacklist as well as soundtracking ad campaigns for Nikon and Chevrolet, eventually amassing over 84 million Spotify streams. Soon after, The Leaves became his third consecutive album to bow in the Top 30 of Billboard’s Heatseekers chart, coinciding with the adoption of his niece and his newfound role as her legal guardian. But now, with all that chaos behind him, the time has arrived for Cooper to take the next step. Currently Ben is releasing music on his new record label Bear Machine, with a slew of new material coming throughout 2019.

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