2021 – Think Bensonium

Day 481: Last train Home, John Mayer

Roderick Benson — Tue, 13 Jul 2021 23:00:57 +0000

Another song that has only been premiered this year. This one by John Mayer was released in June and again like the Coldplay song rather upbeat and a nice song to listen to. I wonder if the centre of gravity of pop music is starting to shift again away from R&B which has dominated the current music scene for way too long in my opinion. Love the all white acoustic guitar in this video clip. Very cool.

Day 480: Higher Power, Coldplay

Roderick Benson — Mon, 12 Jul 2021 23:00:02 +0000

A new hit from Coldplay. Quite a catchy song with a very funky video sequence to go with the music.

Day 392: Chemtrails over the country club, Lana Del Rey

Roderick Benson — Thu, 15 Apr 2021 23:00:53 +0000

Err so where do I begin with this one. Lana Del Rey is certainly a very interesting musician and this one of her latest songs fresh off the press so to speak as it was only released in January of 2021. It has Del Rey’s trademark voice but it also is a very interesting video combining a lot of mixed imagery which about three quarters of the way through the video enters a horror genre. It is also interesting to observe how Covid-19 has written itself into the video as Del Rey dons at least two styles of face mask during the video.

Day 350: To the Island, Crowded House

Roderick Benson — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 00:00:06 +0000

OK we shall finish the week off with a song from the band Crowded House. Now this song was only published last month so for once I am citing song which are up to date rather than my usual living in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Poor old Neil Finn is looking a lot older than I remember him in the days of Split Enz. I’ve only listened to the song a few times but it is pretty good with what I would describe as a fairly laid back feel to it. The video clip is also pretty interesting with lots of evocative images in it.

Day 320: Waiting on a war, Foo Fighters

Roderick Benson — Wed, 03 Feb 2021 00:00:14 +0000

So if you click on my release dates, you will see that my musical centre is around the 70s and 80s. Likewise there is a distinct drop off in youtube video release dates post 2010. I’ll be honest, I haven’t found the music that is played on the radio from about 2010 onwards that inspiring. A lot of the music is just too “kitchy” for me with dominate hip hop electronic music that I simply can’t relate to at all. I guess this is simply showing my age.

Therefore I was rather pleased to find the latest Foo Fighter song release on Youtube which was only released 11 days from when I am writing this blog (15 days at this blog publication date). It is great to see (what I would call a classic rock band) actively producing new music and this song is particularly good in my opinion.

I really like the musical progression of this song as it asks the question is “there more to this than that?” Another song that mirrors the existential angst of humanity as we walk this strange path of what we call life.

Update 25^th March 2022: On this day the drummer of Foo Fighters, Taylor Hawkins passed away from what looks like a cardiac infarction. Sadly Taylor struggled with addiction issues and the toxicology report stated that "Hawkins had ten substances in his system at the time of his death, including opioids, benzodiazepines, tricyclic antidepressants, and THC, the psychoactive compound in cannabis" (Wikipedia). Sadly another rock & roll artist who was tortured by his demons and died way too young (he had only turned 50 in February). RIP Taylor!