With ‘Love & Life,’ Benet exemplifies being patient
By John Benson
The Milwaukee native has woven the human experience into musical expression.
It’s a new day, a new chapter for R&B soul singer-songwriter-producer Eric Benet with his recently released third album “Love & Life.”
“I really like the way this record starts off with the song ‘Love, Patience, & Time,’” said Benet, calling from New York City. “It’s just a statement to the resilience of the human experience to stay present and stay connected with God and never believe that you’re incapable of overcoming any obstacles in your way. I really love the way that song sets it up as, ‘This is who I am, this is where I’m coming from.’”
As one of today’s hottest artists, Benet has numerous top 5 R&B singles (“Spend My Life With You,” “I Wanna Be Loved,” “Hurricane” and “Pretty Baby”) to his credit. However, in recent times, he entered choppy paparazzi waters with his high-profile divorce from Hollywood actress and Cleveland native Halle Berry.
Considering his aforementioned quote about overcoming obstacles, it doesn’t seem to be too much of a leap to suggest he was referring to his marriage difficulties.
“I think the cool thing about the human condition is you fall on your face and make mistakes but God willing, you stay open and learn all the lessons that you’re supposed to learn through the process,” Benet said. “And then there’s a lot of growth and peace and wisdom on the other side of that.
“For me, that wisdom translates to happiness, not tripping out when things don’t go right and not catastrophizing (sic) situations and just being open and loved and liked as a person. And that’s happiness to me. I feel like these songs in this record and the whole feel of this record sort of translates that feeling.”
From the beginning of his career, the Milwaukee native, who first arrived on the scene in the mid-’90s with his debut effort “True to Myself,” has seemingly woven the human experience into musical expression. What stands out in the 41-year-old’s career is his ability to incorporate an old-school vibe into a new millennium sound.
Sure there are hints of Latin, jazz, gospel and soul music found on “Love & Life,” but Benet, who appears Thursday at PlayhouseSquare’s Allen Theatre, seems to be channeling something greater.
“The intent behind ‘Love & Life’ was to make an honest, feel-good and authentic R&B record,” Benet said. “When you look at most of the hits today, some very talented producer will make a hot beat and he’ll turn it over to a songwriter. A lot of times that works, but for me what works best is to do it like they did it back in the day. Just sit down at a piano or pick up a guitar and construct a song where the lyrics and the chord structure and the changes all travel together along the arc of a beginning, a middle, a climax and then come back down to an end.
“I just wanted to make a record that felt classic like that. Some of the songs definitely don’t feel like the ’70s era, but I feel like they have so much of their own personality and they were created in so much the same way that the whole record is almost a homage to R&B.”