Artist: Ben Lee
Album: Deeper Into Dream
Bitrate: 246kbps avg
Quality: EAC Secure Mode / LAME 3.98.4 / -V0 / 44.100Khz
Label: Lojinx
Genre: Rock
Size: 84.09 megs
PlayTime: 0h 44min 28sec total
Rip Date: 2011-10-15
Store Date: 2011-10-14
Track List:
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01. My First Dream 1:38
02. Deeper Into Dream 3:57
03. Lean Into It 3:21
04. Indian Myna 2:34
05. Pointless Beauty 4:31
06. When The Light Goes Out 4:26
07. My Second Dream 2:05
08. Glue 3:56
09. The Church Of Everybody Else 4:10
10. I Want My Mind Back 5:46
11. Get Used To It 3:47
12. Dirty / My Third Dream 4:17
Release Notes:
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There's a quote out there that says, "Dreams are only thoughts you didn't have
time to think about during the day." Aussie-born singer/songwriter Ben Lee
reaches beyond such a notion and turns it upside down in order to grab hold of
the unconscious. On Deeper Into Dream he examines the intricate layers of
dreams, looking to make sense out of life's most complex questions and ideals.
"I find dreams to be incredibly honest despite the kind of world we live in,"
Lee says. "[Dreams are] proof that every single person on the planet is an
artist and is completely creative. I really don't like that elitist attitude to
art û I like the idea that we are all creative and dreams prove it because
people create entire worlds every night."
The ARIA award-winning musician's fascination with dreams and the mysteries
behind them has long been a part of 20-plus years in the music business. But
only now does the former Noise Addict singer, whose early years saw releases on
the Beastie Boys' Grand Royal label and Thurston MooreÆs Ecstatic Peace!
imprint, feel it's the right time to explore that. In the last several, three of
which were spent working with the late therapist Jan Lloyd, Lee fell in love
with the mysteries that dreaming presents. After he and his wife, actress Ione
Skye, welcomed their daughter, Goldie Priya, in 2009, Lee thought it was time to
re-examine things, especially the hidden messages inside his own dreams.
"After having such a long career in music, and having had a baby, I just felt
like music, in a way, it's sort of become a job that I could have just
maintained at a certain level by doing it in a way that I knew how to do it," he
explains. "And that became sort of terrifying to me. Music for me has always
been a tool for working out exploring myself and exploring the world. It
literally took me out of Australia onto a journey around the world. Or
internally, it's the creativity û it unlocks things inside you and the audience.
So I just wanted go deeper with that and I found working with the dream really
powerful for that."
No longer interested in trying to compete for a radio smash hit, Lee felt he was
finally comfortable with the idea of producing this deeply personal set entirely
on his own. However, such a decision wasn't met without a little nervousness and
combining that with the whole dream idea Lee says making Deeper Into Dream was
downright terrifying.
"The making of the record was really scary," he says. "For me, that's part of
what dreams show: how innately terrifying the experience of existence is. In a
way, I'm not sure I've ever made an album that hangs together as well as this. I
think I've made a record that's honest to me about where I'm at." He continued:
"And with dreams, we're all hearing the same message, which is 'listen to
yourself.' I just want to do that more and more creatively."
Joining Lee for this dozen-song set are his longtime musical collaborators Nic
Johns, Lara Meyerratken, and Petra Haden, as well as mixer Noah Georgeson (The
Strokes, Devendra Banhart, Joanna Newsom). While recording at his Laurel Canyon
home studio, he also got a little help from his friends and family. For the last
year, Lee has been recording and collecting their dreams, all of which are
spliced into three mesmerizing dream collages.
"I felt like people reveal more than they realize they're revealing in telling
you a dream," Lee says. "If you say to someone 'Hey, how are you doing?' they'll
say 'fine' or 'ok' and not give much away. With a dream, despite their greatest
efforts to conceal all their vulnerabilities, it all comes out in the mythology
of their dream."
From the earthy acoustics of "Glue" and the celestial synth-tinged "I Want My
Mind Back" to the pop grandeur of "Pointless Beauty," Deeper Into Dream comes at
you from all sides. On the vibrant rush that is "The Church of Everybody Else,"
Lee's resistance against conformity has his heart wide open, and more than ever
before. "Get Used to It," a riff-heavy surge mixed with lush string
arrangements, finds Lee contemplating death, particularly the death of Jan
Lloyd. He ponders the moment of leaving this world, and the fear that must
accompany that transition. ôOnce you jump in,ö he sings, wondering if the
journey into the unknown might be easier than you think.
"We think that life is simple and or we may think that life is black and white,
and dreams often open up the complexity and the ambiguity and the uncertainty,"
Lee says.
An 8-years-in-the-making feature length documentary - Catch My Disease - from
director Amiel Courtin-Wilson, premiered at the Melbourne International Film
Festival in August. The film captures LeeÆs life and career up until his
daughter Goldie was born. "It's been very liberating [to see it] because it
allowed me to put some things into perspective that I couldn't see before. I
became a man. A better artist. And a kinder person. A warmer person.ö