Old Sea Brigade - Love Brought Weight
- Written by Julia Lamb
Old Sea Brigade is the indie-folk project masterminded by Atlanta-based Ben Cramer. Gentle and ambient, Cramer’s sound is reminiscent of bands like Bon Iver and The National, at times sprinkled the lightest touch of experimentation.
His latest single ‘Love Brought Weight’ is a soothing, acoustic guitar-led number. Cramer doesn’t stretch to show off with his vocals; instead he sits in a comfortable mellow range and lets his raw tone speak for itself. In fact, his voice is somewhat reminiscent of Beck’s softer moments (think ‘Heart Is A Drum’), as well as indie-folk contemporaries Iron & Wine and Joseph Arthur. “Where is love, did I miss it/Am I home or still adrift?” Cramer sings atop a nimbly plucked acoustic guitar. The song gently ebbs and flows and subtly pulls you into its ambient setting, a landscape Cramer adorns with plinking piano, a delicate glockenspiel and lush harmonies. As it progresses, the track introduces some ever-so-slight moments of experimentation, gathering momentum before slipping into a lulling outro.
‘Love Brought Weight’ is a lesson in the art of subtlety; a simple tune that gets under your skin and stays there. Cramer has carefully crafted an atmosphere that – for lack of a better description - sounds as though it’s floating, and it’s an atmosphere that washes over you from start to finish. The ability to put a listener at such ease through a song is no easy feat, but thanks to brilliant, understated song writing, Old Sea Brigade has it in spades.