Benjamin Clementine is London born, but Paris is where he honed his musical craft. I don't really know how you would begin to categorize his music and am not sure that it is necessary anyway (for him or anyone else)--some call him Nina-Simone-like, and there are definite hints of an influence it would seem (he gives interview shout-outs to his influences-Tom Waits, Simone and Nick Cave)--and he definitely doesn't fit into the musical molds that would seem likely to get people on the charts, instead he creates a unique, profound and deeply emotional music in a style all of its own, laying rhythmic lyrical patterns over particular piano lines, with strings and drums that seem to give the music something of a vintage feel sonically. The lyrics are what his work seems to really want to call attention to-again something not necessarily driving a lot of stuff on the charts today.
His debut album, At Least For Now, is sublime. It doesn't all work, but that's the deal with creativity I think.
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