{"id":9425,"date":"2014-09-02T15:17:31","date_gmt":"2014-09-02T15:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/?p=9425"},"modified":"2014-09-02T15:17:31","modified_gmt":"2014-09-02T15:17:31","slug":"ben-watt-hendra","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/2014\/09\/02\/ben-watt-hendra\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Watt &#8211; Hendra"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/stylusmagazine.ca\/2014\/09\/02\/ben-watt-hendra\/watt2\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-9426\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-9426\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stylusmagazine.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/watt2-300x300.jpg\" alt=\"watt2\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Best known for being one half of the breezy 90s dance-pop duo Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt\u2019s first solo album in over thirty years marries dark themes with a mix of ethereal folk-rock and riffs grungy enough for the likes of Neil Young &amp; Crazy Horse.<!--more--> Lyrically, the album wrestles with themes of regret, the death of loved ones, and the unrelenting passage of time on tracks like \u201cForget,\u201d \u201cMatthew Arnold\u2019s Field\u201d and \u201cYoung Man\u2019s Game.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, this is not to say that <i>Hendra<\/i> is without its bright spots. \u201cGolden Ratio,\u201d one of the album\u2019s bouncier tracks, finds Watt grasping for life&#8217;s seemingly unattainable beauty atop a smooth, jazzy bed of Fender Rhodes, upright bass, and congas. <i>Hendra<\/i>\u2019s tasteful use of Moog and ARP synthesizers, among other electronic sounds, could draw comparisons to the more gentle moments of post-Syd Barrett Pink Floyd. It\u2019s fitting, then, that Floyd\u2019s own David Gilmour makes a guest appearance playing slide guitar on the track, \u201cThe Levels.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The album ends on a decidedly hopeful note, with Watt urging the listener \u2013 and perhaps himself \u2013 not to lose sight of life\u2019s simple beauty when faced with ordeals: \u201cOpen up your arms tonight\/ Open up and hold her tight\/ Because most of this stuff\/ Is just happening in your own head.\u201d (Caroline, benwatt.com) <b>Phil Enns<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Best known for being one half of the breezy 90s dance-pop duo Everything But The Girl, Ben Watt\u2019s first solo album in over thirty years marries dark themes with a mix of ethereal folk-rock and riffs grungy enough for the likes of Neil Young &amp; Crazy Horse.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9425"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9425\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ckuw.ca\/stylus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}