Benji Hughes - Songs in the Key of Animals (Merge, 2016)

Benji Hughes

Songs in the Key of Animals

Merge

2016

Rating: 6.5 well-fed giraffes out of 10

I have no idea what to make of this Benji Hughes record.  He's from Charlotte so he's sort of a local, but despite playing live A LOT all over the Triangle over at least the last five years if not longer, I've never paid much attention.  By all accounts he puts on a tremendous live show, so not seeing him after all of these years is probably a personal failing on my part.  This record, "Songs in the Key of Animals," his first for Merge, is stylistically all over the map.  He'll span from Parliment-like funk one song to a modern impression of Dr. John on the next song to something that sounds like an outtake from a National album after that.  Thing is, he does a damn fine job of all of these different styles without any of them feeling like mimicry or he's ripping the original artists off.

As interesting as this record is, I'm not sure how much I would actually listen to it just out of the blue.  It's almost too all over the place, like a mixtape with no theme.  But I definitely want to go see him live now, because there's no way these songs aren't fun

performed with a full band.