Ben Harper, The Innocent Criminals – Lifeline (2007/2017) [Official Digital Download 24bit/192kHz]

Ben Harper, The Innocent Criminals – Lifeline (2007/2017)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/192 kHz | Time – 41:18 minutes | 1,63 GB | Genre: Blues, Folk, Rock
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © Virgin Records

Recorded direct to analogue tape in one week at the end of a long world tour, Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals’s top 10 release Lifeline was an effort to recreate the energy of their acclaimed live show. Many of these songs were written on the road and worked out in sound checks before being committed to tape in a Paris studio. The instrumental track Paris Sunrise #7 garnered a Grammy nomination for Best Pop Instrumental Performance.

As it’s played out on his recordings, the very gift that has been such a boon to Ben Harper has also been his bane: his musical restlessness and the wide range of styles he seems to employ. It’s obvious, and has been since his sophomore offering, Fight for Your Mind, that Harper is not only a master guitarist but a fine songwriter and a great showman. He’s been under the sway of legends like Marley, Hendrix, Dylan, Redding, and to a lesser extent, Havens. On his recordings he’s wrapped them all up together continually, creating an identity forged on that diversity. That said, as a result, the albums have often suffered. In a live context that shape-shifting mélange can be – and more often than not is – seamless and utterly exciting. In the studio it doesn’t gel so easily. His last studio record, Both Sides of the Gun in 2006, attempted a narrower, albeit mellower focus; but he spread it over two discs! The desire to concentrate on a single identity – as a singer/songwriter – resulted in a less than optimal, sometimes even boring, result; a single disc would have been more easily swallowed. Perhaps this is why his most satisfying and consistent offering is arguably his collaboration with the Blind Boys of Alabama on There Will Be a Light from 2004 – until now.

Tracklist:

01. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Fight Outta You (04:12)
02. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – In The Colors (03:01)
03. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Fool For A Lonesome Train (03:31)
04. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Needed You Tonight (02:49)
05. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Having Wings (03:31)
06. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Say You Will (03:04)
07. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Younger Than Today (03:24)
08. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Put It On Me (03:30)
09. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Heart Of Matters (04:27)
10. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Paris Sunrise #7 (05:17)
11. Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals – Lifeline (04:28)

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