Ben Lee: Awake Is The New Sleep : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Championed in the nineties as an underage indie wonder boy by Beastie Boys and Sonic Youth, Australian-born singer-songwriter Ben Lee has struggled to be judged on his subsequent music's own adult merits. Highlighting that struggle was his relationship with actress Claire Danes, with whom he has since parted ways. For the inevitable breakup disc, twenty-six-year-old Lee trades the hipster beats of 2003's Hey You. Yes You for a return to his earlier winsome but often wimpy folk pop -- only here, it's a little slicker and spiked with messy post-relationship drama. He sings, "You can go your own way" over a bed of Fleetwood Mac-ish background vocals on "Gamble Everything for Love," and on "Close I've Come," the poor bastard cries, "You broke my fucking heart/But I still want you." Awake has the occasional spiffy tune (the country-folk charmer "No Right Angles"), but it's padded with pop-rock toss-offs and an unlistenable, ten-minute instrumental noise jam ("Light"). Note to Lee: Wake up and smell the B sides.