Name: Songs in the Key of Animals
Brand: Benji Hughes

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

mrg551lp

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Colour

Colour details

Discogs ID

Format multiplier

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2016-02-05

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

Cargo

Tax rate GB

Standard:20

UPC / Barcode

673855055114

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Total Cap

1 / Extended format: No / LP / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No

Artist

Benji Hughes

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

North Carolina's Benji Hughes fronted a rock band in the nineties. He's written commercial jingles ('Got a Little Captain in You?' for Captain Morgan rum). He's made music for film and television (Walk Hard, Eastbound and Down). He released 2008's 'A Love Extreme', his excellent double-LP debut record. But these ventures aren't different hats Hughes wears. They're not different paths traveled. This is Hughes playing in different keys. Now, for his first full-length on Merge, Benji Hughes is playing 'Songs in the Key of Animals'. Recorded over two years mostly at Frisbie studios in New York, the record is 41 minutes of pop-music exploration. The album has a summertime immediacy but an evergreen resonance (see 'Longshot'). It's clever but too deep for punchlines (check the excellent back and forth of 'Picnic'). It is sincere ('Girls Love Shoes') yet heartbreaking ('Song for Nancy'). It's eccentric but never forced in its strangeness. It's the kind of record that reminds us music can be fun without being empty. It's an album full of peacocks and sharks and zebras and tigers, but ultimately, it's about us. "People are animals," Hughes says, "even if some people don't want to admit it." 'Songs in the Key of Animals' taps into something beyond just intellect or trend or taste. It's all about the feel, the connection between the player, the music, and the listener.2CD - Double-CD packaged in 6-panel digipak with booklet. LP includes a full album download.

Songs in the Key of Animals

Music GB