Diamonds On The Inside

Ben Harper clearly oozes vocal and instrumental talent, especially in a live setting - as anyone who has witnessed his past Irish performances would attest. It’s just that the dread-locked Californian with a backwards-gazing musical vision just can’t seem to get away from his persona as a poor man’s Lenny Kravitz..

Like the aforementioned serial-plunderer of the musical past, late ’60s/early ’70s rock styles are his blueprint. But such is the all-pervading influence of Hendrix, Marley, Sly Stone, Stevie Wonder et al, that you wonder why he doesn’t abandon these pastiches and opt for a covers album instead.

On Diamonds On The Inside it’s not so much, ‘spot- the-influence here as, ‘where have I heard that before’? The opener, ‘With My Own Two Hands’ finds him mimicking Bob Marley circa ‘Exodus’ with skilful accuracy while ‘Brown Eyed Blues’ sails so close to Stevie Wonder’s ‘Superstition’, complete with clavinet and wah-wah guitar that it’s hard to take seriously. The title-track is chock full of rock clichés mostly drawing on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s ‘Freebird’ while the harder rocking ‘So High And So Low’ sounds like Harper doing a Kravitz on Led Zeppelin’s ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and coming off second best. Much better is the gentler, gospel-tinged ‘When She Believes’, though it’s let down by the undercooked lyrics while bottleneck acoustic blues on the Prince-meets-Ritchie Havens of ‘When It’s Good’ showcases his playing skills

The appearance of Ladysmith Black Mambazo on ‘Picture Of Jesus’ is so obviously derivative of Paul Simon’s ‘Diamond’s On The Souls of Her Shoes’ (which also featured the Ladysmiths) that it must be some kind of joke, especially given the album’s title.

If recycled hooks and dippy bell-bottomed platitudes are your thing, you might find this a work a genius. On the other hand. you might prefer to stick to the originals.