3X10review: oddball R&B bliss”>
1010benja. Photo by George Ian Hewitt
Kansas City-based producer-singer-songwriter 1010benja’s new three-track EP follows his 2024 debut album Ten Total, a collision of neo-soul, sugary pop, gospel, drill, and trap that I was wary of at first but warmed up to almost immediately. 3X10 is only three tracks long, but it satisfies nonetheless.
Opener “Chosen Omen” is a Frank Ocean-indebted slow jam that sees benja pairing juicy synths with blissful acoustic guitar arpeggios to underscore his lovely tenor. The track’s lyrics are similarly Oceanic, pairing biblical imagery with contemporary, earthly concerns to tell the story of a down-on-their-luck loved one looking for a sign that things will get better.
“Lightrope” is chugging alt-rock summoned from the turn of the century, its pacing and twangy guitar arpeggios (a theme) evoking goofy radio fare like Crazy Town’s “Butterfly.” As on Ten Total, though, benja transcends his corny reference points, savvily employing “minor genres” like a masterful literary novelist going noir.
3X10 ends with “YAM,” an inspired interpolation of the System of a Down ballad “Lonely Day.” “YAM” follows the scansion of “Lonely Day” and sticks loosely to its melody, but its lyrics diverge from its source material almost immediately. “Such an openness / Such an open-hearted openness / Keeping me high,” benja sings, showing off his vocal range. “Such a loveliness / A softhearted bashfulness / [Your big bells are clinging high (?)]” (not sure about that last one).
“YAM stands for ‘YOUR ASS, MINE’ and wouldn’t you know it? Life’s got you, the gods and planets ensnare the weak and vulnerable,” benja said in a press release. “You, you are a snare, your love is a prison. The truth hurts, its violence is rich and sweet. When an American leaves their familiar land to travel to tropical places, one bite of a good YAM is worth 1000 Quarter Pounders.”
1010benja’s music is couched in the same sort of wry, stream-of-consciousness humor, and it serves him well: His stylistic touchstones on Ten Total and here (Ocean and SOAD exempted) make me cringe a little, but he’s too clever, talented, and all-around likeable to hate. The music rocks in spite of itself, and benja’s refusal to take himself too seriously launches it into rarified air.
