Review Benjamin Booker- Lower
Reading Time: 2 Minutes
Benjamin Booker hails from the jazz and blues dominated city of New Orleans, and his early bluesy rock sound reflected his hometown. After 2 albums in the 2010’s, Booker dropped off of everyone’s radar. In 2025, Booker has re-emerged with a new forged sound. Over the past 2 years, Booker appeared on Kenny Segal produced tracks in collaboration with some of our favorite underground hip hop artists. After working on these songs, Benjamin Booker realized that Kenny Segal was the producer that he needed to flush out the sound he desired for this album.
Through the 11 tracks, Segal’s hip hop production imbues the tracks with a deeper and fuller sound behind Booker’s bluesy rock guitar and vocals. This fusion of styles creates a textured album that inexplicably manages to sound familiar and completely new, at the same time. Booker’s vocals are soulful at times, personal and vulnerable at others. The production compliments Booker in a manner that is complex without becoming a distraction. This is an album that longs to be listened through from start to finish. On one listen, track 2 “LWA in the Trailer Park” or track 4 “Slow Dance in a Gay Bar” might be the one that touches me the most; on the next listen, the closing track “Hope for the Night Time” touches me with its deeply personal lyrics and tone.
RIYL:
Perfume Genius
Lenny Kravitz—The Early Years
Frank Ocean
Haiku Review
Heart and Soul of Blues
Hip Hop production backbone
Perfect harmony
