If I’ve listened to Every Kingdom by Ben Howard once in the last couple of months, I’ve listened to it 50 times. I discovered this, like lots of things I discover, from Maggie Mason of Mighty Girl. On my first listen I thought, “Ooooh…nice.” Then I started listening to it every hour. Then, about 6 weeks ago, I listened to it 5 times a day for a few days. I’m back down to 3x a week with this one but don’t see it leaving rotation anytime soon.
Part of the appeal is that it has no connection to my history. I’ve been struggling with music things as of late because it seems every album in my library is somehow connected to that
relationship. I know I’m being too sensitive and someday soon I can again enjoy all of Antifogmatic without having to skip the first track. I’ll be ecstatic when even the thought of listening to The Head and The Heart doesn’t make me queasy. There’s lots of Paul Simon to skip, along with Fruit Bats, Van Morrison, Bright Eyes and all sorts of others. We didn’t just share hearts, we shared songs and losing that is like losing him twice. It sucks. I digress.
The main part of the appeal, though, is that it’s just a damn good album. The lyrics are very well written, the music is rich and the whole album feels like a long, warm hug. Or a really good run. Or belly laughs with people who truly know each other. It’s a lot of emotions for me and none of them are sad.
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