I remember 8-9 years ago. My then manager Matthieu Gazier forced me to record a song I never thought much about. I thought it was musically lacking, lyrically absurd and too basic for my ability. But I finally gave up and recorded the song. Now without a doubt nemesis has been used a plethora of times on different projects through the years and gets the most cheers on stage. How? Why? I still don’t know.
This, taken from Benjamin Clementines’ Instagram post is about his song Nemesis being used as the theme for The Morning Show. Perhaps it is one of his ‘simpler’ songs and if you know his music at all, you’ll know he is a much more experienced and prodigal pianist than the song suggests. As for the absurdity of the lyrics:
If I held my breath on you
I would have died a thousand times
And if chewing was to show you how much I cared
I would probably be wearing dentures by now
They’re profound. They create vivid images. Not too different from his other lyrics in the matter of uniqueness. Along with his effortless marriage of classical and rock piano, his lyrics fit as poetry over the music, not confined by the rhythm, but taking their own as if the speech is the most important part. After all, he is a poet as much as he is a composer and performer. In all of his music, the instrumental gets its turn to display innovative playing.
The use of Nemesis on The Morning Show might be a chance to expand the musician’s audience to a slightly different demographic. This is not to say that he’s gone unnoticed.
Once a busker sleeping rough on the streets of Paris, now a Mercury prize winner considered in high esteem as a musician, performer and poet.
Oft compared to Nina Simone, Clementine has been touring in the past few years, but there have been no official releases since 2017. His Instagram post hints at new music, hopefully in the near future, and it’ll be exciting to see how his writing style has developed over the past two years. It’s hard to categorise the style of music, but I think it’s apt to say it is anything but ordinary. We can say pop is emotive and full of expression as much as we like but can we continue to do that when so much of it sounds the same? That’s another article altogether. The point here is that no one has crafted music like Clementine’s. It appears so personal, eloquent and raw in music, lyrics, style, production and execution. Truly an artist of our time to remember.
I am an expressionist; I sing what I say, I say what I feel and I feel what I play by honesty and none other but honesty. Some will get bored of me, but I invite the patient listener to come forth, feel and most importantly engage with me without asking too many questions. Hopefully, by the end of listening they shall get answers not questionable, whether pleasing or not.
- Benjamin Clementine
Visit his website to see his creations: https://www.benjaminclementine.com/
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