Benjamin Verdoes - The Evil Eye (2014)

Verdoes elects to go for straightforward prose instead of any sort of abstraction. It’s elegant in some cases (like in the bitterness of “Two Shadows”), but some of the reflections come off far too boyish, unintentionally interfering with the narrator’s deeper desire for intimacy. Exhibit A: “Keep saying that it’s nothing, but it’s something to me/ You know I didn’t have anybody else,” from “Telling the Truth”, feels more like a scribbled seventh grader note than dark desperation, especially with the slight whine with which Verdoes sings the lines. On “The Future Is a Bandit”: “I saw us in a vision/ I know the future is a bandit.” The sense of exploration is there, as it is throughout the rest of the album, but not all journeys are necessarily memorable, especially when they’re haphazardly told.

TRACKLIST

01. Bill Iyo Zaynab (1:59)
02. Evil Eye (3:16)
03. Telling the Truth (3:09)
04. Unknown Fears (3:26)
05. The Future Is a Bandit (3:11)
06. Forest of Your Mind (3:21)
07. Two Shadows (3:21)
08. Under the Layers (2:50)
09. When We Were Young (3:39)
10. If the World Ignites (3:18)
11. So Bari (3:10)