Ben Lee – Awake Is The New Sleep

Most often what we’re seeking in music is inspiration — that spark of being brought to life by a sound, a lyric, a song. Ben Lee’s new record has it from the very start of the opening track, when a simple guitar riff hops aboard a soft wash of keyboards to create a background that sounds like the dawning of the day. Lee chimes in and asks, in succession, “Are you changing? Do you feel it? Do you know it?” and finally concludes, “Just do it, whatever it is.” The music makes you believe the challenge can be met, the goal can be attained, the battle can be won, whatever it is. It makes you feel inspired.

A pop protege from Australia since his late-’90s debut as a teenager, Lee appears to be maturing musically without losing the wide-open wonder which has always marked him as something special. He’s more acoustic here, less dependent on the punch of power-pop but increasingly appreciative of sonic nuances. He balances touches of guitar, piano and organ with a graceful melodicism, marrying the warm glow of the sound to the bright rays of the words.

The apex is “Begin”, which opens with a quiet guitar-strum heartbeat underneath as a handful of strokes on the piano float above, little bubbles of exhilaration breaking beyond the surface. In strolls the optimistic protagonist, walking down Broadway and “trying to make eye contact with each and every stranger that I pass.” He feels the weight of the city squarely on his shoulders, but somehow he turns it all around. From the depths of urban despair, he strikes back with a steadfast hold on hope: “While you wonder how’s this gonna end, I only want it to begin.” As the song progresses, the music builds, adding bass, drums, percussion, organ and other accents as Lee plays out the contrast between darkness and light: “I’m thinking about desire/I’ve had to learn how to sin successfully”; “I’m thinking about my heart/I guess you’ve heard that sometimes it’s heavy”; “Despite all this, I know she won’t give up on me.”

The album’s catchiest single is “Catch My Disease”. Contrary to Lee’s tongue-in-cheek zinger in the lyric — “They don’t play me on the radio/And that’s the way I like it” — it’s a natural for the airwaves, with its buoyant handclaps, infectious melody and singalong chorus. For sheer sonic beauty, it’s hard to top “Apple Candy”, which radiates with a melodic richness that serves as an aural complement to its chorus observation: “You smell like apple candy.”

Not everything Lee touches is golden. Awake is a bit top-heavy; its best songs are clustered up-front, leading to a noticeable sag in the middle before a fairly strong finale with the repetitive but memorable “We’re All In This Together” and the ambitious extended excursion “Light”. He could’ve bypassed a handful of songs in-between, particularly “No Right Angles”, which isn’t as wise as its premise aims to be, and “Get Gotten”, a pretentious wallow in self-absorption.

At his best, though, Lee has few peers his age. That he’s still just 26 suggests there may be even greater things to come.