''Is It?'' is the fifth studio album by the English singer-songwriter
Ben Howard
Benjamin John Howard (born 24 April 1987) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and composer. His self-released debut extended play (EP) ''Games in the Dark'' (2008) was followed by two more EPs, '' These Waters'' (2009) and '' Old Pine'' ...
, released on 16 June 2023 via
Island Records
Island Records is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It was founded in Jamaica by Chris Blackwell, Graeme Goodall, and Leslie Kong in 1959, and was eventually sold to PolyGram in 1989. Island and A&M Records, another ...
.
Background and recording
The album was created before and after Howard suffered two
transient ischaemic attacks in 2022. The strokes, which affected his memory and speech, influenced Howard's songwriting on the album. Created with DJ-producer
Nathan Jenkins (aka Bullion), the album features a distinctly electronic leaning.
Glitches and loops populate the mix alongside "radiant" guitar ripples. The album combines treated vocals and atmospheric drum machines, to "create the story" of Howard's experience. The opening track playfully recalls this experience. The interlude "Total Eclipse" features manipulated language to render the effect.
The album was recorded at Le Manoir de Léon in
Léon, Landes, France; and at
Real World Studios
Real World Studios is a residential recording studio complex founded by Peter Gabriel and situated in the old Box Mill building in the village of Box, Wiltshire, England, near to the city of Bath. It is closely associated with the Real World R ...
in
Box, Wiltshire
Box is a large village and Civil parishes in England, civil parish within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Wiltshire, England, about west of Corsham and northeast of Bath, Somerset, Bath. Box also falls in the easternmost pa ...
, England.
Release
The lead single from the album, "Couldn't Make It Up", was released on 20 April 2023, with the album announced the same day. A second single "Walking Backwards" was released 19 May 2023. The third single, "Life in the Time", was released on 7 June 2023.
Critical reception
At
Metacritic
Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, which assigns a
normalized
Normalization or normalisation refers to a process that makes something more normal or regular. Science
* Normalization process theory, a sociological theory of the implementation of new technologies or innovations
* Normalization model, used in ...
rating out of 100 to reviews from professional publications, the album received an
average
In colloquial, ordinary language, an average is a single number or value that best represents a set of data. The type of average taken as most typically representative of a list of numbers is the arithmetic mean the sum of the numbers divided by ...
score of 84, based on 4 reviews.
Stephen Dalton of ''
Uncut'' commended the album's experimentation and deemed it "gloriously scrambled avant-pop", comparing Howard's vocals to those of
Arthur Russell.
Track listing
Notes
* "Days of Lantana" contains a sample of "
Trois Beaux Oiseaux De Paradis", as written by
Maurice Ravel
Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...
and performed by
Linda Thompson
Linda Diane Thompson (born May 23, 1950) is an American songwriter, former actress and beauty pageant winner.
Thompson began her acting career as a " Hee Haw Honey" on the American television variety show ''Hee Haw''. She was also a girlfrien ...
.
Personnel
Credits adapted from
Tidal.
*
Ben Howard
Benjamin John Howard (born 24 April 1987) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and composer. His self-released debut extended play (EP) ''Games in the Dark'' (2008) was followed by two more EPs, '' These Waters'' (2009) and '' Old Pine'' ...
– vocals (all tracks), guitar (1–7, 9, 10), electric guitar (6),
aerophone
An aerophone is a musical instrument that produces sound primarily by causing a body of air to vibrate, without the use of strings or membranes (which are respectively chordophones and membranophones), and without the vibration of the instrume ...
s (9), electro-acoustic realization (9)
* Nathan Jenkins – synthesizer (1–7, 9, 10), programming (1, 2), background vocals (2, 5, 10), drum programming (3–10), production (all tracks), mixing (all tracks)
* Mickey Smith – guitar (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7), bass guitar (1, 2, 4–7, 9, 10), percussion (1, 7, 10), baritone (1), tape realization (1, 8, 10), background vocals (1, 6, 10), drums (5)
* Richard Thomas – synthesizer (1–5, 7, 9, 10), background vocals (1, 6, 10), harmonium (3), piano (7, 8, 10)
* James Arben – bass clarinet (1), saxophone (2), oboe (3)
* Raven Bush – strings (2, 4–6, 9, 10)
* Nat Wason – guitar (4, 6–8), lap steel guitar (5)
*
Michael McGoldrick
Michael McGoldrick (born 26 November 1971, in Manchester, England) is a folk musician who plays Irish flute, uilleann pipes, low whistle and bodhran. He also plays other instruments such as acoustic guitar, cittern, and mandolin.
Bands
McG ...
–
uilleann pipes
The uilleann pipes ( or , ), also known as Union pipes and sometimes called Irish pipes, are the characteristic national bagpipe of Ireland. Their current name is a partial translation of the Irish language terms (literally, "pipes of the ...
(6), flute (9)
* Stuart Hawkes – mastering (all tracks)
* Bráulio Amado – artwork
* Allan Wilson – photography
* Roddy Bow – photography
Charts
References
{{Authority control
2023 albums
Ben Howard albums
Island Records albums