A call for action and hope, BEN OSBORN Are We the Flood
Ben Osborn Are We the Flood is available at Spotify, Bandcamp, Apple Music.
by Walter Price
Nearly all lullabies have haunting undertones intertwined within their warmth and soothing natures. So does the just-released climate crises call to action single, “Are We the Flood?”, from poet and socially conscious singer-songwriter Ben Osborn.
Sung in an eerily melodic and whispery vocal, Osborn sings, “I wake up tonight/ the first time that I can write/ in weeks/ heard the crash of waves/ against the timber frame/ almost the same/ as your/ heartbeat/ we’ll be saved/ if the waves/ rise up over the land/ we’ll build our nest on the chimney/ out of driftwood and crushed aluminum cans/ worn soft by the raging sea/ and will it be that the sea will rise over this town?/ will it be that the buildings will all be torn down?/ will it be that the waves will crash over the ground?/ is there a voice that sings out of the sound?/ are we the drowned or are the flood?”
Stark imagery only made more stirring when, in later verses, backing vocals by producer Alex Stolze tiptoe in. “I could sing for the things that we’ve lost in the mud/ I could cry for the lies that they’re telling to us/ for the blindness that bleeds and that laughs at our love/ are we the blood/ or are we the flood?”
“Are We the Flood?”, with its nuanced sounds woven in, is another beautifully constructed and purposeful song by the ever-aware Osborn and you can stream it now as well as the Berlin-based songwriter’s Top Spotify Tracks, now at the GTC.
BEN OSBORN Are We the Flood
Artist photo and album artwork by Andrea Huyoff
Song by Ben Osborn
mixed and produced by Alex Stolze
mastered by Andrea Lupo Lubich
“I wrote this hoping to respond to our times of climate crisis, uncertainty, and fear, and as a call for action and hope.” – B. Osborn
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“Are We The Flood? continues Ben’s exploration of the personal, emotional reality of global crises. The track’s skillful storytelling and intricate sound design are a testament to Ben’s background as a theatre composer and librettist, alongside his rising prominence as a songwriter and producer. His vocals, soft and speech-like, take on a wistful tone as he frames a series of revealing questions.” – Bandcamp post