Mutual Benefit - Love's Crushing Diamond (Album Review)

 

Mutual Benefit - Love’s Crushing Diamond

(2013)


My copy: 2014 reissue by Other Music Recording Co.


Mutual Benefit is the project of singer-songwriter Jordan Lee, with Love’s Crushing Diamond being his second full length release. Lee has an ear for regal, sweeping folk ballads which comprise most of Love’s Crushing Diamond. 

“Strong River” is an intro track of murmuring strings and brushed drum pittering that builds layers of sound before falsetto vocals touch base. “Golden Wake” introduces a programmed beat and lavish piano that shares the stage with an earworm synth melody. The vocals across the album are a touch dramatic albeit quiet and slightly insecure, like a less stable version of Fleet Foxes. Backup vocalists do appear all through Love’s Crushing Diamond providing lovely harmonies on tracks like “Advanced Falconry” and “Strong Swimmer.”

“That Light That’s Blinding” features soothing piano but is bogged down by generic sounding percussion and guitar tones that are more suited for a boring contemporary soft-rock song. Most of this album is saved by the swirling synth atmospheres that fill out the instrumentation. The violin performances are well composed but a touch overplayed. 

Attempts are made to branch into psych with textural patchworks and the usage of chimes/glockenspiel but the production does not allow for anything to feel truly dense or full. Love’s Crushing Diamond feels like an ambitious record that was killed by the mindset that the production should stay rooted in neo-folk. “Strong Swimmer” closes the record with tip-toeing vocals and airy synths. 

Lee and company have succeeded in arranging a series of lush and calming arrangements while failing at producing something that sounds interesting enough to truly create a lasting impact.


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