Neu Benjamin Clementine

London via Paris songwriter’s ballads might seem obvious, but nobody’s performing them like Benjamin Clementine.

Words: Jamie Milton
16th December 2013

Name

: Benjamin Clementine
Based: London
Listen: ‘Cornerstone’
Similar to: Antony and the Johnsons

Announcing himself via a stirring, piano-led performance on Jools Holland (how else?), Tottenham-raised, Paris-inspired Benjamin Clementine possesses ‘one of those’ voices. The kind that shakes the walls, brings a grown man to tears. His recent track ‘Cornerstone’ is a resolute triumph, coming to an emotional montage near you.

There’s a big backstory to the 26-year-old’s beginnings. Sometimes there needs to be, when music is this emotionally ‘out there’ and on display to be prodded and poked. Given barely any upbringing by his parents, he was a self-professed troublemaker, basing himself out in Camden before starting the whole music thing in Paris, aged 19. ‘Cornerstone’ is evidence that fragile early years can contribute to emotionally on-point songwriting. Not since Adele’s ‘Hometown Glory’ has a song sounded so obviously tearjerking yet completely vital at the same time.