Florida born indie folk singer Ben Cooper, better known as Radical Face has just released his newest album in his Family Tree series titled The Leaves. True to his signature sound, The Leaves features all the creeks and cracks one has come to expect from a Radical Face record. Cooper has done a phenomenal job in creating an aesthetic to his music, often times the experience brings out very visceral feelings of being in a specific place. The Leaves has moments where you might as well be walking through a forest, and if you’re smart and or lucky enough to be listening while walking through an actual forest, then you are pretty much doing this album right.
Like all Radical Face records, Cooper is writer, performer, and producer of all elements of the tracks. Each instrument and vocal part is his doing (with occasional female vocal accompaniment), no easy feat considering how complex and full the music on this record sounds. We’ve come along way from the days of just vocals, guitar, and clapping. The Leaves features complex drum tracks with interesting audio effects that give a new layer of depth that we have yet to see out of Radical Face.
This record has drama all over it, both in the individual tracks as well as the juxtaposition in one song to the next. Early on “Rivers To Dust” turns into “Everything Costs” providing a jarring sonic contrast that keeps the album interesting. That same contrast can be found in a single track like the following “Midnight” where at moments we are faced with a strange almost eerie waltz and that slowly fades into the melodic style chorus that Cooper has built a name on.
The album also features an intense instrumental track that passes by quickly, with a measured but attention grabbing build up into a gratifying drop. Personally, the highlight of the album for me was “Third Family Portrait,” a continuation of the family tree motif that has permeated his most recent albums. It provides the same haunting choruses one has come to expect and while that sound has come to define Radical Face it has yet to go stale.
Overall, the album is a bit of an oddity, at first glance a lot of it sounds like the same old Ben Cooper but every couple of tracks something strange and different will come up. Songs like “Rivers To Dust” or “The Road To Nowhere” bring a new and interesting element to what has largely been a one trick pony sound wise. I wouldn’t say that any song on this album reaches “Welcome Home” heights but it is a very sold record and on that is very worth a listen.
Here is the official music video for the album’s opening number “Secrets (Cellar Door).”
