nixpertise

June 10, 2021 A few weeks ago Benjamin Woo - a friend from college - sent me his album, " Blessed Be ." It's him singing solo, with simple guitar accompaniments. His lyrics mix the prosaic with the spiritual, moving between sentiments of faith, renewal, isolation, and struggle.     My two favorite tracks are " Hallelujah " and " Across the Sea ." In "Across the Sea," Ben slowly strums chords, grounding his lyrics in a periodic, but expressively uneven ebb and flow. He sings to an unnamed lover across the ocean: "[...] talking everything the mind can't think of while I'm in prison wishing I could be there" "[...] won't you call me when you're free" There are multiple meanings of 'freedom' in the album - there's freedom as peace of mind, as the pleasure of companionship, as a mode of witnessing and roaming. Throughout "Blessed Be," this state of togetherness seems to be in the past, or e...