Every so often a moment comes along that feels like it alters the trajectory of your entire life. For artists of all kinds, these moments can inspire some of their best work. Ben Bostick\u2019s fourth album Grown Up Love<\/i> is a member of this club, a mature and affecting work whose entire reason for existence stems from a single incalculably consequential moment.<\/p>\n
As further preface, let\u2019s also acknowledge that, for a parent, there is no harder moment to bear than the one in which you find yourself powerless to protect your child from harm. It is devastating. To craft meaningful, resonant art from that kind of moment requires a degree of both courage and skill that is too rare to measure.<\/p>\n
After delivering two albums of smart and playful Americana matching honky-tonk flair with gritty poetry, Bostick changed things up. A South Carolina native who had lit out for the West Coast a few years before, in September 2019 Bostick, his pregnant wife and young daughter circled back around, moving to Atlanta. Their second daughter was born in February 2020, followed in quick succession by the arrival of the pandemic and then Bostick\u2019s third album, the more contemplative and acoustic, yet sharper still Among The Faceless Crowd<\/i>. <\/p>\n
Three months later the moment arrived on which this entire album turns: Bostick\u2019s elder daughter was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome, a rare and severe genetic disorder that affects all aspects of her life. In the aftermath, Bostick hunkered down farther still inside the comfort of his family unit and found himself composing a collection of songs about the enduring power and resiliency of, yes, grown up love. These are love songs far truer and tougher than anything you\u2019re likely to find in the Top 40, grounded and potent and fueled by the purest devotion.<\/p>\n
The album essentially tells a story in three parts. Part one opens with \u201cDifferent Woman,\u201d a bubbly, bass-and-horns-driven tune in which Bostick describes the changes he\u2019s seen in his wife over the years they\u2019ve been together, from a free-spirited \u201cdealer in easy smiles\u201d for whom \u201cCommitments were optional \/ Time was a suggestion\u201d to a more grounded partner who is \u201cBound by ties unbreakable \/ Unfree yet unconcerned.\u201d In quick succession the gently bluesy \u201cShades Of Night\u201d finds the couple chilling at the end of a long day of parenting, a tender, slumbery seduction, and \u201cLucky Us\u201d delivers a poignant anthem to gratitude, declaring over picked acoustic guitar, organ, and piano that \u201cWe aren\u2019t rich, but we aren\u2019t poor \/ We got more, more than enough \/ Lucky me \/ Lucky you \/ Lucky us.\u201d There\u2019s foreshadowing as well, as Bostick sings \u201cWe have our burdens \/ But they won\u2019t break us \/ We are more, more than strong enough\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
The second act of the story takes place inside a single track. \u201cThe Diagnosis\u201d is the heart of the album and nothing short of jaw-dropping. Opening like a gentle soul tune with chanted \u201cdo-do-doot do-do-dos,\u201d it unflinchingly zooms in on the instant when everything changed. \u201cDreams are made of glass \/ They shatter so completely and it happens so fast \/ In a moment go from bliss to bust \/ The world changes so much faster than us.\u201d With the ache of uncertainty in his voice, Bostick sings \u201cJust because you know the truth don\u2019t mean you know what it means,\u201d before pushing onward to this remarkable resolution: \u201cLord, the heart is in constant motion \/ Tumbling downstream to the infinite ocean \/ Gasping, beating, looking for signs and wonders \/ Listening for signal in the storm and thunder \/ Hope will light the way \/ On the darkest of all days.\u201d<\/p>\n
After this cataclysm, Bostick retreats inside his own mind for a moment. The airy, echoey \u201cUnder The Palmetto Moon\u201d offers a fantasy of escape (\u201cThe night belongs to us \/ Only us\u201d), while the sublime \u201cIf We Only Had Tonight\u201d imagines the end of the world over warm acoustic guitar and strings: \u201cLet\u2019s not wait \u2019til it\u2019s too late \/ The end could come on any day \/ So love me like it\u2019s our last time \/ Love me like we only had tonight.\u201d <\/p>\n
After this two-track interlude Bostick returns to the heart of the matter. First the thrumming, rather playful \u201cThe Myth Of Translation\u201d explores the pitfalls of miscommunication, and then the warmly rendered ballad \u201cA Grown Up Kind Of Love\u201d delivers a manifesto contrasting youthful infatuation with the kind of deep and lasting commitment that sustains. Accordion lends the song a mischievous continental air as Bostick sings: \u201cIt\u2019s such a shame when a heart\u2019s fare goes to waste \/ It pains me just to think of \/ Those hungry souls who never will taste \/ A grown up kind of love.\u201d<\/p>\n
The closing pair are the kind of timeless classics that any balladeer worth his salt might spend years chasing and never manage to rope. Accompanied only by his own sweetly picked acoustic, on \u201cLike Old People Do\u201d Bostick paints the small, sweet moments that make up a lifetime together with a hopeful smile in his voice. And then, with the room already feeling dusty, he delivers closer \u201cIt Seems Like Only Yesterday.\u201d \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s already been one year \/ It seems like only yesterday we met,\u201d he sings, remembering the moment with an affectionate chuckle, before hitting the chorus punchline: \u201cI love you more tonight than I ever did before.\u201d The second verse adds keening slide guitar as Bostick clarifies the arc of the song: \u201cI can\u2019t believe it\u2019s already been ten years…\u201d After the second chorus there\u2019s a hitch like he might be done, but it\u2019s just a setup for the coup de grace. Suffice it to say, if this one doesn\u2019t melt your heart, you should probably get that looked at.<\/p>\n
One of the many things that Bostick does so well here is to leaven the album\u2019s overall serious tone with moments of lightness and humor, carving out emotional space for joy that ends up making the tougher lines bite that much harder. It\u2019s both a master class in storytelling and a naturalistic reflection of life, in which the tragic lives alongside the absurd, and laughter and tears are never that far apart. Ben Bostick\u2019s combination of fearless honesty and peerless craft reminds of no one so much as Jason Isbell, which is to say, he\u2019s world class. Grown Up Love<\/i> is exceptional in every respect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":34365,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[10172],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-46201","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ben-bostick","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46201"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46201"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}