Ben Harper
Fight For Your Mind (Virgin) (star) (star) (star) 1/2
Ben Harper’s 1993 debut, “Welcome to the Cruel World,” was a work that commanded respect, if not hand-springs, with its low-key earnestness. “Fight For Your Mind” carefully expands Harper’s sonic territory, venturing into churning feedback on “Ground on Down,” string-quartet delicacy on “Power of the Gospel” and Eastern drone on the 12-minute “God Fearing Man,” while keeping Harper’s supple, soulful voice and bluesy Weissenborn lap-steel guitar at the center of the mix. He’s still a bit too earnest as a lyricist; by personalizing the word “oppression” and then building an entire song out of it, he comes off like a ’50s coffee-club cliche. Though only “Ground on Down” approaches the explosive immediacy of Harper’s quartet in concert, “Fight For Your Mind” generally succeeds on another level: rarely has spirituality been made to sound so seductive.
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