Benny Blanco - FRIENDS KEEP SECRETS

Benny Blanco
FRIENDS KEEP SECRETS
2018
Spotify

You may have never heard Benny Blanco's name, but you have heard his songs more than you know. Benny is the latest super producer turned album maker, stepping from behind the boards to behind the mic. He has worked with some of the biggest names in contemporary music: Kanye West, Halsey, Katy Perry, Justin Bieber and many many more writing or producing some of their biggest songs. He has been nominated for Grammy's, been given awards by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and been in your ears for years now. This solo career began with the albums first track, previously a single, called "Eastside" featuring Halsey and Khalid. It ticks all the boxes of a modern pop song which at this point basically means trap drums and R&B delivery. That theme continues throughout the record including the next track "Roses" with Juice WRLD and Brendon Urie from Panic at the Disco. Blanco clearly has friends, they are all over this record, but what we really see with this record is just how similar much of pop music sounds. The times Blanco stretches out are the album's most intriguing like "Just For Us Pt. 2" that employs this electronically twinged vocal over a sparse gentle beat. You can hear the Kanye West and bon Iver influences here, but they are almost TOO on the nose. Even if it was Blanco who originally discovered the sound, He feels like He is imitating it a bit here.

The collaboration with Calvin Harris is endearing and you'd be happy to hear this rather than some other shit that comes pumping out of club speakers, but is it groundbreaking? Not really. That is where you find yourself on much of this album; the songs are perfectly fine, even catchy at times, but they are not what you would hope would come from a producer of this caliber. Jesse Rutherford, from The Neighbourhood, who features on "Better to Lie" with Swae Lee seriously sounds laughable with his trap style delivery on the song. When Swae Lee comes in towards the end of the track you realize just how weak Jesse's part of the record is. The seven track album ends up being fine, but you would just expect more from a producer of this caliber. It seems like Blanco is content to rely on his friends to propel these songs forward, but you really get zero of what He is all about on this record. He saves the longest most meandering song for the closer with Ryan Beatty and the album skids to a unsatisfying ending. FRIENDS KEEP SECRETS sounds rich in your ears, but it also doesn't feel like Blanco's best by any stretch of the imagination.

5.9 out of 10