Hey You Yes You
Modern recording careers are notoriously fragile things. Just when Ben Lee's acclaimed 1999 collectionBreathing Tornadosseemed ready to give his already precocious career (begun as the 14-year-oldwunderkindfrontman for Australia'sNoise Addict) some serious traction, his label folded. Undeterred, Lee took the life's lessons learned, built his previous album's experimental production touches into something more rhythmically foundational (courtesy of producerDan the Automator) and reemerged with the dozen solid tracks here. There's an upbeat, guitar-centered pop consciousness to the cautionary "Running with Scissors," but it's a deceptive one that Lee's variously spins into funk-groove ("Dirty Mind") and electro-baroque ("On and On," "Music 4 the Young and Foolish") while following a restless m! use. But it's also an album whose wafting melodic sense can just as easily drift into the dreamy, more typically folkie ruminations like "Shine" and "In the Morning." Lee's vocals have matured into a clear, unaffected tenor that often soars above the restless, edgy beats here; a wizened voice of experience that belies its not-so-tender 24 years.--Jerry McCulley