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Firesideometer

"Skin And Bone" - reviewed by Carlton Farmer

There is a fairly easy way to quickly determine if you will enjoy this album.  Do you like musicals?  Do you own any soundtracks to musicals?  An admission of this sort will no doubt invite ridicule from my peers, but I do.  On both counts.  While I rarely watch musicals, whenever I do, I find that I usually enjoy them quite a lot.  This is probably what made me give Skin and Bone a chance.  Some would have ejected the CD after hearing the first few notes of the cabaret-style piano on the opening track, but I didn’t.  Some would definitely have stopped listening when the sparse drums came in, further announcing, “This is not what you were expecting!”  When Ben Godwin theatrically sings out his first few lines of the album, I can just see him sauntering across a stage at the front of a smoke-filled room.  I can almost hear the metallic click of the tap shoes, which I am almost sure he is wearing.  It is hard to accurately describe Godwin’s voice.  Think Tom Waits: The Musical.  The first song was so radically unexpected that I kept listening, all the way to the end of the album.

The vaudevillian chorus of ‘Drinking Gasoline’—the first track of the album—made me think of one of those memorable Don Bluth films from the 80s.  Godwin’s rattling baritone voice rises above a barroom piano, “The rats are running in the subway / The fat-cats are choking on their cream / The roaches are creeping in the plumbing / And the dinosaurs are drinking gasoline.”  Of course this is Godwin introducing the New York City that he knows—a city that he loves, but not enough to overlook its faults.

To say that New York City is the theme of this album would be an oversimplification.  While its imprint can be found on most of the songs, Godwin uses New York as an archetype of the 20^th Century City.  In ‘New World City’ he laments, “We’ll make a new religion out of rusted cars / Out of televisions / Out of hollow stars.”  But he sees this is a universal problem, indicting the world over: “In London, Calcutta, Manhattan, LA / Beijing, Moscow, Mexico, Bombay, Chicago, Jakarta, Cape Town, Cairo, Buenos Aires, Tehran / In the New World City.”  Although the album may not be overly political, Godwin’s ideas about society's ills are never far below the shimmering surface of his songs, thinly veiled by clever lyrics and bouncy, upbeat instrumentation.  At times Skin and Bone comes off a little preachy—no doubt a result of Godwin’s fire-and-brimstone bellowing. 

Some of the best tracks of the album come when Godwin abandons politics and much of his cabaret style.  The best example of this is ‘Castaway’, which is markedly different from the rest of the album, mainly due to Godwin’s pared-down vocals.  Another example is ‘Constantly Reminded’, which appears to be simply about a girl.  But even here, Godwin can’t help but be a little downbeat: “The only thing that’s constant / Is the constant state of change.”  Two tracks later he intones, “Hate is safer than love / Love is dangerous.”  An optimist this guy is not.

While it may not be the theme of the album, Skin and Bone definitely has aquatic undertones.  With song titles such as ‘Castaway’ and ‘Hook of Time’, comparisons being drawn between New York City and Atlantis, and references to Noah’s ark this is readily apparent.  The album art furthers this theme.  On the cover of the album waters rush through a New-York streetscape.  Are these cleansing waters, clearing away the problems of the city, washing it clean?  If so, let’s hope Godwin trades his tap shoes for some rubber boots.