If you want to mark yourself out as a newcomer to keep a watchful eye over, let us tell you this, you don’t get anywhere by following the suit of others. Nor with dealing out a whammy amount of melancholy as we turn the corner from the change of seasons into the crisp embrace of fall and winter. Seasonally affected music is all well and good but when it’s bleak outside, a buoyant and well sung song can just lift you out of that whole bleakness of impending shorter days and chiller climes.
This is exactly the type of emerging artist we have no hesitation in holding out for amongst an inbox largely full of unimpressionable, samey tracks! Then, New Yorker Ben Alessi arrives as if as out of nowhere, with a powering soulful tonality and pure vocal command which exudes a confidence that is sure to stand him good stead in the longer outcome.
Ben debuts with “U”. A mid-tempo, sonically manicured, electronic pop ballad which makes every good use of Ben’s modern hip-pop evocative tones, to their greatest merit. We’re not talking the wordy-rap here, but everyday language is more and more littered with urban street talk these days, so it’s place in new music has been on the ascent also. Ben doesn’t so much jump on the trend as knowledgably utilizes a mere smattering of it to mesh a sound that resonates with a mass appeal to all age groups. Not only for the cool kids who will needless be down with it!
In truth, this is the BEST vocal I have heard all week long and completely has that ingredient of promising pop star potential about it, that makes us think Ben has something good going on about him. We couldn’t put our finger on it at first, but we’ve come to the conclusion that Ben reminds us of a little of London’s hip-pop exponent Sam Sure, maybe it’s that he’s a Transatlantic cousin or something.