Gratitude is an ambitious album, but only on its own terms. It is an album three years in the making, an album finally and ultimately realised as Benjamin Francis Leftwich checked himself into rehab, and saw his stay through to its logical conclusion. That alone is laudable, and the overall tone of Gratitude is, well, spelled out for all to see in the album's title. Leftwich looked ruin in the eye and didn't blink. What follows is an optimistic, grateful and ultimately redemptive love letter to the opportunities afforded to him, and the acceptance he has received. It is a departure from what we have come to expect from the singer-songwriter, but not the genre he inhabits.
The title track doubles as the album's opener, and the very first words that Leftwich sings are "Finally I can see it, I've landed on the ground, look at all the peace I've found". It's a statement of intent, a treatise of what you can expect in the songs that follow. What you can't expect, is the hushed, acoustic tones of Leftwich's earlier albums. There are nods to past work in ‘Sometimes’ and ‘Tell Me You Started to Pray’, but these play second fiddle to the more bombastic numbers – the strongest of which might be Leftwich's second single ‘Look Ma!’. Leftwich's voice is strident here, more so than we've heard him before – which is fitting, because it's the first song he wrote after getting clean. Undulating synthetic drums and a euphoric soundscape overall make ‘Look Ma!’ the best summation of Leftwich's vision for Gratitude as a whole. It's celebratory, and it should be, given what he's accomplished in his personal life.
This last point is crucial. Leftwich is clearly much more comfortable in his own skin, both on a personal level, and in an artistic sense. On Gratitude, this fact couldn't be more evident. You can practically feel the warmth of his smile as he effortlessly glides through the album's forty-minute runtime, and that's something not many albums can claim to offer. This was clearly an important album for Leftwich. An album where he is not looking to answer to anyone. An album where he is (at least in his mind) only looking to please himself. Yet the album's release was preceded by him dropping not one, not two, but three indie covers. It is an album that he thinks isn't answering to anyone, but is still eager to please everyone. I like this album, make no mistake, and it is hard to fault Leftwich in his clear ambition here, but I just wish he'd gone further. Maybe next time.
Gratitude is out now via Dirty Hit.
