Album Review - BENEE - Lychee
REVIEW BY: Camille Penrose
Image credit: Ophelia Jones
At long last, we have been given the highly anticipated Lychee, NZ singer BENEE’s second album. Like the fruit, Lychee is refreshing, sweet and surprising at times. It’s an experimental album for BENEE, and you can hear her tentatively testing out new sounds, and finding her footing in a more alternative, disco-pop space. While some songs flourish under her new confidence and willingness to be more creatively audacious, some don’t quite live up to the expectations set by her 2020 album, Hey u x.
The album opens with Beach Boy, which is one of the best songs on the album. It’s catchy, yet complex and it is a clear demonstration of BENEE’s ability to cover simple subject matters amidst a transportive, musically dense piece. Beach Boy is essentially about a guy that BENEE is into and finds endearing. It’s drifty and feels like a song you’d listen to driving at night. What I really like about this song is it showcases BENEE’s breathy falsetto beautifully and shows a new maturity in her tone. At times it reminded me of her 2019 song Find an Island, but with a higher level of creative depth.
We then move to Soft Side, which at times almost borders on EDM (a surprising but good move for BENEE). Soft Side plays with thick autotune and some cool synths while BENEE expresses her desire to see a softer side to someone: “I wanna see your soft side / But only when the time’s right / And it’s a shame you’re in the limelight / Makes it hard to catch your eyesight”. It’s one of BENEE’s braver songs for sure, and it pays off. The distorted sound works well as a representation of the confusion she feels with the person she is trying to understand more deeply in the song.
Then comes Hurt you, Gus. This song fits the moody theme of the album and continues BENEE’s electronic experimentation. This track encompasses BENEE reaching a successful point musically in which she has wiggle room to take different musical directions and divert from her traditional pop sound. BENEE is surprisingly threatening in this song, claiming “rest assured I will hurt you Gus”. However, her divine, silvery tone covers up these darker lyrics, and turns it into quite a fun song.
Never Ending is the next track and has electronic vocals much like Soft Side. Lyrically this song is one of the most interesting on the album. You can really feel that BENEE is being honest with herself in this piece, asking her partner “Am I just not enough for ya?”. This piece has a distinct, tangible tone to it, and it’s nice to hear a strong guitar presence. The eery background sirens make you feel uneasy listening to this song, and the lyrics are noticeably more reflective that her previous work. She explores the feelings of a “Never ending” relationship beautifully, asking “what do we have when nothings left?” proclaiming “we ruin everything we touch, you ruin everything you love”.
Marry Myself comes next and is one I struggled to connect with. It’s fun and has a cool bossa nova influence at times which is unique in modern-day music. It’s essentially about BENEE rejecting a proposal because she wants to marry herself. You can hear that she means it ironically and is having fun with herself, but it sits a little flat amidst some of the great artistic work in the album. Maybe it’ll just take a few listens though.
BENEE redeems herself with the next song, Doesn’t Matter, which is my personal favourite from the album. It’s probably the most stripped back, and it also comes off as the most heartfelt. BENEE sings about being envious of someone else’s lack of anxiety, asking herself “If I medicate would it help me?”. She is looking for answers from a person who has no fears, at least in her mind. There’s a beautiful chorus where her tone truly shines, and the guitar creates a relaxed energy that counteracts some of the brutally honest lyrics. The song ends by BENEE concluding that she knows nothing matters in the grand scheme of things, yet she can’t seem to overcome the anxiety she is facing.
Make you Sick is the last track on the album and is by far the longest at over 6 minutes. The song has quite a stripped back, dramatic beginning that makes you feel like you’re being led into something emotional and grand. This then builds up to BENEE pronouncing herself a “Bad bitch” over and over. It’s empowering in a way but also feels shallow at times. She plays with some cool textures and sounds in this song though, albeit a little chaotically placed. This song feels like her experimenting with newer sounds and finding her footing. She asks the subject of the song, “Does it make you sad when I talk about you like that?” wanting to tease them, but also to know if they care about her opinion. It’s a playful song that keeps you on your toes.
It’s unsurprising that BENEE used Beach Boy and Doesn’t Matter as her singles, because they are the clear standouts on Lychee. The 7 tracks on the album are a step forward for the 22-year-old singer. She’s trying something new and daring to break the pop-mould, and for that she’s brave. Overall, I would say that it really worked for this album, and it was refreshing to hear innovative musical choices from such young talent. I’m excited to hear this live-in concert soon and to see how she uses Lychee’s experimentation as a springing board for new music down the line.
BENEE
AUSTRALIA 2022
Presented by Live Nation and triple j
Tuesday 29 March - Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide
Thursday 7 April - Big Top, Sydney
TICKETS HERE: https://beneemusic.com/
