I know what you are thinking, dear readers, who the heck is Bleak Soul? Unless you are familiar with Ben Langford-Biss, you may not be familiar with his debut LP or solo career. Ben is a former member of one of my favourite bands, As It Is, and truth be told I always had a lot of time for each member of that band. When Ben announced his departure from As It Is, I was devastated because I wasn’t able to fly over for his final gig to hear him play one last time. But, at the same time, he was leaving for his own happiness and I wished him every success in the future.
To my delight and thousands of other fans’ delight from around the world, on May 14th, Ben announced a single release under the name Bleak Soul called ‘Why Am I Here?’. At the same time, Bleak Soul announced his debut LP called ‘Existential Meditation’ which was released on May 22nd. As an additional surprise, a second track was dropped early with fans being able to stream it two days before ‘Existential Meditation’ came out. That brings us to what this blog post is dedicated to, ‘Existential Meditation’.
Overall, the LP is stand alone from anything I have heard recently. Existential Meditation doesn’t fit into just one genre. Ben (Bleak Soul) describes his music as being influenced by the likes of Nick Cave, R.E.M, Elliott Smith and mid-2000’s emo. Honestly, Ben (Bleak Soul) has created something truly unique and spectacular with Existential Meditation. I should mention here that it is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea as the music is extremely reflective and captures the essence of the artist’s feelings on matters discussed in his songs. I would urge everyone to look past the music world, dominated by upbeat pop tunes, dedicated to different stages of love and take a chance on something that goes above and beyond to understand the human psyche.
For Existential Mediation, Ben did everything from the writing and recording to producing and editing. In my opinion, Existential Meditation is all about the lyrics – the stories and the emotions shown within the songs. Keep your ears glued to those lyrics to get a full understanding of the LP itself. Bleak Soul covers some large topics about life and existence in general, that will make you question and reflect upon your own life. The songs themselves, although exceptionally reflective, are mellow enough to pop on in the background for study/work music and general music to get feelings from said music!
Now let’s dive into the songs, shall we?
First up is ‘Why Am I Here?’ and as stated above it was the first track released off of the LP. My first reaction when I heard it was ‘This is really different than what I am used to, I don’t know if i like it or not.’ Upon a second listen, I decided I did like it, very much so. I was completely surprised by this song; I listened for the first time with no expectations of what it should sound like but I was completely blown away with how it sounded.
The song itself begins with a haunting sound before beginning a beat that repeats throughout the song. In my opinion, this beat aids the lyrics with a call and response aspect with “Why Am I Here? Why Am I Here?”.
Next is ‘I Want Out’ and it was the second track to be released. This one was a stark contrast from ‘Why Am I Here?’ And was a good choice to release after ‘Why Am I Here?’. This song shows the listeners that Bleak Soul is not just one genre of music.
The opening guitar here sounded like something you may be familiar with from Ben’s previous musical endeavours. Although it sounds similar, the overall sound is something completely different. His voice being somewhat softer than the instruments collectively in the background works wonders for this track. The instrumental section at the outro of this song is by far my favourite on the entire LP.
‘Palm Springs (An Observation from an Elevation)’ upon first listening to this one I really didn’t like how the song made me felt. A tightness in my chest began to form and I didn’t know why I had such a negative reaction to it. So, I grabbed my headphones to take a closer listen.
The song starts with an interesting twist, I don’t want to spoil it so be ready for that one! The drums in this one acts in my opinion, as the pulse of the entire song and adds to the emotion within the lyrics. Lyrically, this one is cleverly composed and will make you feel what Bleak Soul wants you to feel.
‘A Beautiful Murder, A Hideous Sunrise’ this one has a guitar introduction that I adore. The song title had me intrigued from the get go as, visually, I had a picture in my mind just from reading it.
‘A Beautiful Murder, A Hideous Sunrise‘ is the song many of us live inside and, honestly, it is important to know that others do too. The clever use of tone of voice while using the bass to its full potential is what had me hooked on this one.
The shortest song on the Existential Meditation is next and called ‘Twenty 7’. At 1:03, one has to wonder why this short song of musings was included. The answer is in the lyrics. Listen carefully to this one as I, for one, am happy that Ben is still here.
‘Twenty 7‘ is a song that needs to be listened to with earphones or headphones. Why? Because otherwise you will miss the true beauty of this song.
Followed by ‘Handmedownhead’ which seems to be a firm favourite with Bleak Soul’s fans and I can understand why. The song shows one aspect of his singing that, those who followed Ben in As It Is, will be familiar with.
The chorus of this one is the stand out chorus of all the songs on this LP. Lyrics for this one may cause you to have a lump form in your throat upon first listening and, like some of the others, listen with headphones/earphones to fully fall in love with the beauty of this song. *Disclaimer* Chorus may cause you to headbang.
Next is ‘The Death Of A Stranger’ this one is pretty epic, trying to explain it is hard. The way it starts is not how it continues. Lyrics turn from soft to strong and the emotion that seeps in as the song progresses! This is the song that made me think “Wow! Okay, Ben, I’m listening” I would love to find out if this was his intent with this song.
My advice when listening to ‘The Death Of A Stranger’ is to listen to it a number of times focusing on everything, then the music, followed by the lyrics and then everything again. There are so many elements happening at once and, by gosh, does it work fantastically! And if you can’t already tell… this one is my favourite!
Lastly ‘Exist‘, I am a sucker for an acoustic and everyone who knows me knows this! It’s simply done. It’s just Bleak Soul and his guitar. This helps with listening closely to those lyrics.
The most truthful lyrics I have heard in a song in a very long time are in this song “If you think believing is seeing then, you have eaten yourself alive!” This one is going to hit close to home for many listeners. One warning for this one, the static in it works just be ready for it.
Overall, I enjoyed this LP immensely. The songs share a common theme and show an insight into the Artist’s inner thoughts, all the while sounding different from one another! It is easy to tell that Bleak Soul is sitting down trying different aspects of music that he wants to try and blending together the right components that have truly worked.
Ben has said that some of the songs of Existential Meditation were written over a number of years while others weren’t. I, for one, hope that Ben continues to do what he loves. Be it creating music and releasing it out into the world under Bleak Soul or doing something else. I am overjoyed with this LP from an artist I wasn’t sure I was going to hear anything new from again and would urge everyone to listen to Existential Meditation here.
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