Ben Bohmer
Bloom


2.0
poor

Review

by durkl USER (7 Reviews)
September 27th, 2024 | 9 replies


Release Date: 09/27/2024 | Tracklist

Review Summary: Profoundly basic

Watching his live performances, Ben Böhmer seems genuinely committed to a type of cookie cutter emotional house music most people are only willing to engage with ironically. Yet it’s this complete lack of irony which makes this album at times a pleasant indulgence. It’s hard to overstate the basicness and lack of irony at play here. I mean this man has a live performance of him on an air balloon over Cappadocia. This man sings along to ‘Waterfalls’ by TLC with his entire crew before concerts to get in the zone. On this album he unironically follows up a track called ‘Rain’ with one called ‘The Sun’. This a level of cliche that’s impossible to parody. Yet, I don’t turn it off. Instead I oscillate between wanting to viciously mock the man and genuinely enjoying his music. Between hate listening and bopping along.

I have to admit though, I’m a little jealous of Ben’s complete lack of irony. He’s making the music he loves, and he’s not ashamed of it. Youtube comments under his live performances evidence people’s profound experiences with his music. Who am I to tell them otherwise? This is the soundtrack to the Instagram reels of holiday highlights that girl from your high school posts with #thankful. This is ‘finding yourself while backpacking in Thailand’ music. It’s the soundtrack to the type of basicness I look down on but secretly envy.

Ben doesn’t skip any EDM cliches here. Every song is absolutely caked in reverb. The chord schemes are meant to evoke that familiar ‘profound’ sound. There’s thumpy kicks driving sidechain compression, pulsing bass sounds, warm and washed out synths and plenty of kick - snap and stomp - clap patterns. At times he sound like a home brand Kiasmos, at others like a dollar store Jamie XX. Yet when it works, it's hard not to enjoy it.

Two songs on here are particularly unsubtle: the aforementioned ‘Rain’ and ‘The Sun’. These lay the ‘profound’ sound on incredibly thick and the lyrics are equally heavy handed. On ‘Rain’: “We keep waking up with different weekend lovers / We brush them under the rug”, “We keep dancing / In the rain”. On ‘The Sun’: “I’m scared of saying I’m not OK / But I’m holding on / Through a perfect storm / Clouds will pass and float along / Until I feel the sun”.

Ben’s genuineness is somewhat disarming and even when it’s not, it’s at least funny. For what it is, the album is well crafted. Yet I can't help but feel that his previous releases had more memorable tracks and the where the first half of the album has some solid tracks, the second half dips in quality. But overall, as a bit of a guilty indulgence, it's still enjoyable.



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user ratings (3)
2.7
average


Comments:Add a Comment 
durkl
September 27th 2024


47 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Hmm the album art I submitted isn't working. How do I fix this?

jrlikestodance
September 27th 2024


1905 Comments


Ben Boring

artificialbox
Contributing Reviewer
September 27th 2024


2509 Comments


try making the image smaller (like 500x500) and try again.

edit: also just read this. loling at the part about instagram reels and “finding yourself in thailand” lmao. good review bud.

durkl
September 28th 2024


47 Comments

Album Rating: 2.0

Thanks!

osmark86
September 30th 2024


11499 Comments


great review, had a good laugh. you truly put to words how I feel about BB as well lol.

Shiranui
September 30th 2024


1077 Comments


Ben Boomer, late bloomer, playing profoundly basic beats on his boom-box with Amy Schumer

Jots
Emeritus
October 1st 2024


7583 Comments


Bohner lmao xd

jrlikestodance
October 1st 2024


1905 Comments


Got em

bloc
October 1st 2024


70670 Comments


Listening to this now. Seems like decent background music

edit: yeah it's 2 to 2.5 tops lol



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