Ari Hest: Someone To Tell : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Comparing Ari Hest to John Mayer is obvious -- he's another young singer-songwriter (and labelmate) who built a nationwide fan base through relentless college tours and a couple self-released discs. However, Hest firmly earns his credentials as a contemporary, not a clone, on his major-label debut. Someone to Tell never veers from middle-of-the road acoustic rock, but it's to Hest's credit that he eschews the need to reinvent the wheel. The Bronx native often recalls tri-state hero Bruce Springsteen in his efficient, vivid songwriting and rich, mature voice; the material ranges from transcending small-town life in "Aberdeen" to the horn-spiked, Dave Matthews Band-esque "Consistency." When he sings "In the absence of this fear and pain/I will finally bid my ball and chain/A fond farewell" in the moving-on anthem "A Fond Farewell," Hest sounds like a man who has lived much longer than his twenty-four years.