It’s not instantly apparent why sure corners of the web have so taken in opposition to Benson Boone. He’s kind of the Lidl Harry Types, and everybody loves a discount. The 22-year-old appeared to hit the mainstream out of nowhere when he had his tux torn off at this yr’s Grammys, front-flipped from a piano and – shock, horror! – grabbed his crotch.
In actual fact, he’d spent a couple of years cavorting on TikTok, made a quick however much-discussed look on American Idol and launched an inoffensive however unremarkable debut album in 2024’s ‘Fireworks & Rollerblades’. That report’s gargantuan breakout single, ‘Lovely Issues’, appeared to sum up his music, which is mostly hooky, guitar-driven and wrapped round a speaker-busting expertise present vocal that signifies emotion relatively than truly conveying it. This temporary, 10-track new album was written in 17 days with collaborator Jack LaFrantz and appears to have been rush-released to capitalise on the Grammys second.
Regardless of its jingoistic title and a canopy that sees him wrapped in an American flag, trying like he’s simply completed up fixing your truck, Boone lately advised Jimmy Fallon that ‘American Coronary heart’ is definitely a love letter to his youthful, idealistic self. Not that he’s precisely change into an embittered music trade veteran: it is a man who doesn’t drink or do medicine (although he lately intimated to Rolling Stone that he’s hooked on “sweet”) and has written a track about how a lot he loves his mum. So album two is a healthful coming-of-age story concerning the boy who dared to dream of at some point sporting a jumpsuit and grabbing his knob on the Grammys.
It’s a extra distinctive report than his debut, opening with the catchy, pulsating ‘Sorry I’m Right here For Somebody Else’, a fizzy pop-rocker that Brandon Flowers wouldn’t be embarrassed to launch as a solo B-side. About half of the tracklist follows on this vein, with much less memorable however shoutier outcomes (particular point out for the monumentally annoying ‘Magical Mystical’, which persists like a musical theatre child who simply received’t let up). The true downside is the gloopy, mush-mouthed ballads that take up the remainder of the album.
Benson Boone is Springsteen with a Huel subscription, Freddie Mercury if he most popular Tangfastics to coke. ’American Coronary heart’ is basically a slicker, extra iPhone-friendly model of stuff that’s been completed extra edgily prior to now; whereas there’s a spot for that, it’s onerous to shake the sensation he’s simply filling in whereas Harry Types works on his subsequent clothes line. There are occasional shiny moments, such because the galloping drum beat that drives ‘I Wanna Be The One You Name’, however then you definately get to the maudlin American Idol tearjerker ’Momma Tune’ and simply need to flush your telephone down the bathroom.
It could be straightforward to say he’s landed on his face, however it’s not even that: the boy surprise’s caught the touchdown he was aiming for. That is bombastic, overproduced pop-rock with an attention-seeking, theatrical bent and broad brushstroke lyrics everybody can relate to. Boone summer time 2025 looms on the horizon. Take cowl.
Particulars
- Document label: Evening Road / Warner
- Launch date: June 20, 2025
