Ben Cooley Hall: Press

Most albums follow a set routine; ten or a dozen tracks, if you are lucky a couple may be good, if you are really lucky none will be awful but most will be forgettable and predictable. On “Owning Up To A Life” his debut solo album, Ben Cooley Hall manages to create an album of strong individual tracks punctuated by three “dream excerpts” that hold together as a single cohesive piece.
His musical style varies throughout; “Ginger Ale” (following on from the second dream excerpt) has a beautiful country fiddle to match his beautiful words (“won’t you be my ginger ale/won’t you be my whole world”) whereas “Dependable Downer” sounds like it should be a mainstay of college radio and “Sunny Day” is breezy, piano led and reminiscent of Randy Newman.
It is unlikely that Ben Cooley Hall will be winning any prizes for best vocal performance at any awards show any time soon...but it is a voice of warmth and honesty and it delivers a magnificent album.

A perfectly pleasant piece of sweetly harmonic music done with a spot on mix of thoughtfulness and maturity, this album makes the grade with flying colors. Ben Cooley Hall’s warm, soothing voice and smartly reflective songwriting make for a formidable double whammy. The spare and uncluttered arrangements keep things simply and sonorous throughout while blending elements of folk, pop, country, and rock into a tasty and tuneful sonic brew. Moreover, there’s a welcome sense of pleasingly positive thinking evident throughout that’s both refreshing and appealing in comparable measure. An excellent and impressive debut solo album.

Despite the release's frequently quiet hilarity, there's really a very existential honesty at work here, and I doubt anyone is going to be able to find similar examples very easily at all. Give Owning Up to a Life the undivided attention it deserves, and you'll find an artwork of highly unusual and self-effacing but invasive merits.

Nice, smart, simple, straightforward melodic pop with exceptional melodies. ...a surprisingly personal and reflective sounding batch of tunes presented by a man who obviously knows what he's doing. Some of the melodies on this album are absolutely lovely and real ("You'll Come to Care" rates right up there with some of Jonathan Richman's best songs).

...a large slice of playfulness and quirky humour, both lyrical and musical...runs like a seam of gold through the delicate folk terrain. ...
At times the quirky inventiveness threatens to overspill into grating odd-for-the-sake-of-odd territory. This never really happens and is perhaps always saved by the quality of the musicianship (most of the instruments are played by the man himself) and the fine, catchy pop instinct that is refined by the alt.country accents. 'Dependable Downer' is an infectious powerful song, sort of reminiscent of Weezer and other smart aleccy American college bands. 'Untrue' is a more direct emotional song with appropriate country style backing.
The album has three short pieces, or 'Dream Excerpts', which give the album a structure and variation which adds to the overall sense of a musician attempting, and largely succeeding, to produce a musically varied album, but one which works as a whole.

While most of popular music consists of bands trying to ape the sound of their musical predecessors, the bold new path forged by Ben Cooley Hall on “Owning Up To A Life” is something that will cause fans of any musical taste or genre to stand up and take notice. The studio side of Hall captured on “Owning Up To A Life” is one that cannot be missed, but for full appreciation of the artist, I would strongly suggest to keep an eye out for when Hall takes his act out on the road. Buy this CD from the site listed today.

OWN UP: Ben Cooley Hall Talks To ROCKWiRED About His Debut Solo CD, "Owning Up To A Life," Leaving Behind the Mary Reillys, and Little Moments in the Studio
[click link below to read the interview]

In a week of writer’s block, book editing hell, and other things that had to be done, one of the best ways for me to be able to unravel from it all was Ben Cooley Hall’s Owning Up to a Life.
It’s a mellow sound, yes, but it has a modern twist. Cooley Hall’s music is reflective of Woodstock, but he adds his own unique flavor. ...
The messages on this album come through clearly: be yourself, do your own thing, and don’t care what anyone else thinks.
A few of the songs, such as “Dream Excerpt No. 2,” “Ginger Ale,” and “Sunny Day” mix up some musical genres, making the overall album even more fascinating.

... awkwardly sweet with a lot of charm. ...his brand of repressed, quirky pop is a definite niche with a following.

Ben Cooley Hall brings you this decade’s version of Woodstock, but with his own unique style. The peace & love vibe is definitely evident on the record, but Hall mixes that vibe up with some of his very own rock, alternative, pop, folk and country sounds. The ironic part is that some of the lyrics of the songs don’t indicate peace & love at all. So, the fact that Hall was able to make all of this work and have the final arrangement come together so nicely is a testament to his artistry. ...