Picture Of You - Ben Mills

...the song where you can picture him grabbing his headphones in some little recording studio and bellowing into the mic stand with all his might.

Overall I really am thoroughly disappointed with this album. It isn't what I wanted or what I expected from someone who showed so much promise. When he first rocked up to stand on that infamous giant X in scruffy jeans and tee-shirt and belted out a tune by one of my all-time favourite artists ...
...from the scraps I've seen and read of Ben in the press over the course of the last few months I can't help but wonder if he's decided to follow the pound sign rather than his heart and I was particularly shocked to see rocker Mills sporting a Nicky Clarke meets Taylor Hanson hairdo of late. The flouncy new image coupled with these weak, busy yet placid songs and soulless vocal performances on his debut album makes Mills an artist I will not continue ... more

Ben Mills, as some of you may already know from watching the popular television talent search series "The X Factor", is a just turned 27yr old husky voiced singer from Kent. Prior to his success on the show, Mills worked as a Director for a Kent Marquee hire company and played in a band called "Benzego". Involved with various aspects of music from an early age and having attended the Academy Of Contemporary Music in Guilford, Surrey, Mills is both a talented singer and musician.

Mills wowed audiences up and down the country with passionate and powerful performances of rock n' roll tracks including Sam Cooke's "Bring It On Home To Me", Queen's "Somebody to Love" and Rod Stewart's "Maggie May"; all of which are long standing favourites of mine. I sat glued to the television set every Saturday evening during the series and picked up my telephone to vote for Mills every week without fail. Unfortunately, having just sat and listened to his debut album "Picture of You" I rather wish I'd saved myself the bother and done something constructive with my Saturday evenings instead.

Those of you who watched the X Factor may well recall just how powerful Ben's vocal performances were. He reached those tricky notes, belted them out with an awesome power and held onto them for dear life. But you won't find many such performances on this dreary album I'm sorry to report. Instead you'll find light and dainty little sing-along songs best suited to little girls and tone-deaf housewives if I'm honest. There's nothing on this album for the music lover; none of that raw passion I so adored him for when watching the show and not one single song had me tapping my foot or bopping my head which is a rarity where music and I are concerned; I've been known to head-bop to Showaddywaddy in the past you know.

The first track on the album is entitled "Beside You". It was originally scheduled for release as a single a week ahead of the album but the record label, BMG, withdrew the single "to ensure the main focus was on the album release". Personally I think they realised it didn't stand a chance in the charts but who am I to speculate? In fairness, this is a nice song. It's upbeat, it's a little bit catchy, heck it's pop music at its best. But how many people who supported this long-haired ex-druggy rocker want to buy pop music from him? Well not too many according to Yahoo! reports online this evening; fellow X Factor series 3 finalist Ray Quinn is outselling his album more than 2:1. If I was buying an album by Take That or Hanson I would probably adore "Beside You", with the exception of the irritating high pitched backing singers, but it's hard to hear something so shallow by such a talented artist and not feel disappointed. Some of the vocal performances in the track do break through from time to time but for the most part, we're talking about listening to a smooth keyboard ditty accompanied by a steady, occasionally funky rhythm section. I doubt you'll remember how this song goes in six months time though.

My biggest disappointment on the album without a doubt is "Amazed" which Mills has completely slaughtered. As a die-hard fan of the original by Lonestar, I actually scoffed and muttered "philistine" under my breath after the first minute or two. I've since listened to the track three times over desperately trying to find something to like about it but I quite simply can't. It's nauseating to listen to such an incredibly bad cover of such a beautiful song. The track itself feels that tiny bit too slow, there are no grand percussion sections or vocal acrobatics to lay any emphasis to the meaning of the song and to be honest it sounds more like Mills is bored stupid than crazy in love. This track is a sore disappointment on all counts.

A bit more like I'd expect from this kind of singer is the track "Nothing But the Truth". I didn't like it at first but having listened to it a few times over I can now say it's fast growing on me as a soft rock ballad brimming with ambiguous emotion. The track opens to the relatively soft yet precise twanging of a guitar quickly taken over by gentle, rhythmic percussion supported by an electric keyboard. The climaxes to the emotive choruses are largely down to a feeling of force from Mills which finally sounds genuine. Listening to "Nothing But the Truth" I can see Mills in tattered jeans and crumpled tee-shirt wandering a derelict estate in some poverty stricken town somewhere getting soaked with rain and stopping to pose longingly against the side of some graffiti-riddled red brick building. It's my imagination and I'll use it as I please okay? My point is quite simply that to have evoked such a lonely and yearning image of Mills there's a lot to be said for this gentle and understated track.

As far as the long awaited hits from the show "Maggie May" and "Somebody to Love" go; I'm afraid the words I think I'm looking for are "over produced". There are too many electronic sounds going on for starters which seriously detract from the vocal performances; and whilst the team may have assumed that changing the songs' tempos would have given them an original spin in fact all they've served to do is ruin them both. "Maggie May" is far too fast and Mills sounds more like he's trying to keep up and sing in perfect tune than convey any real sense of feeling; besides which, you're lucky if you can hear him at certain points in the song due to the overwhelming percussion "backing". "Somebody to Love" isn't as bad but it's not good either. It's a cute little ditty that you'd applaud your 12yr old for singing in a school concert but no way would you put this on in the local for a sing along as you would the original. As for the 5 second harmonica solo? Well honestly. The song ends to the sound of insipid strings that conjure up all kinds of patronising and irritating images in my head. As an avid Queen fan I'm quite frankly annoyed. Mills gave the most amazing performance of "Somebody to Love" during his time on the X Factor so why, dear lord why, has he recorded this pathetically dreary little ditty in its place?

Alongside "Nothing But the Truth", I find myself liking one further track on this otherwise irritating album and that's Mills' version of "With a Little Help From My Friends". Having said that, I've always liked the Wet Wet Wet version (cringes with shame) so who am I to talk where this particular song is involved? Mills has followed the original Joe Cocker version right down to the rusty, heavy percussion intro and backing accompanied by a sweetly melodic female choir. Mills still doesn't quite manage to give his all as he did during his live performances however there are plenty of points in the song where you can picture him grabbing his headphones in some little recording studio and bellowing into the mic stand with all his might.

Overall I really am thoroughly disappointed with this album. It isn't what I wanted or what I expected from someone who showed so much promise. When he first rocked up to stand on that infamous giant X in scruffy jeans and tee-shirt and belted out a tune by one of my all-time favourite artists Sam Cooke I wanted to marry the guy. But from the scraps I've seen and read of Ben in the press over the course of the last few months I can't help but wonder if he's decided to follow the pound sign rather than his heart and I was particularly shocked to see rocker Mills sporting a Nicky Clarke meets Taylor Hanson hairdo of late. The flouncy new image coupled with these weak, busy yet placid songs and soulless vocal performances on his debut album makes Mills an artist I will not continue to support in the future and this an album I cannot recommend.
 

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