Hi, everyone. Toothony Hottano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review, the new Benson Boone album, American Heart.

Here we have the second full-length album from vocalist, songwriter Mr. Benson Boone, who in a few short years has become one of the most polarizing artists in the pop field today. I'm sure many of you watching this video have working memories of the explosive viral success that Boon saw off of tracks such as "Beautiful Things". But a lot fewer of you most likely recall the album release that song coincided with, which didn't create quite as much of a splash.

But you see, Benson Boone has enough pizzazz and enough personality to buoy his mainstream success. It doesn't just have to be his songs doing it because he's got jumpsuits and abs and sex appeal and backflips because those are all enough to keep the people talking.

Now, the discussion around Benson Boone has not always been positive, as you might already know. I've seen comments saying he's the Imagine Dragons of the modern era. I've seen people talk about his Mormon upbringing. Call him a Freddie Mercury ripoff, or just, I don't know, say he's annoying.

One thing I find commendable about Mr. Boone is he does seem to take a lot of the criticism in stride. I do think his songs are over the top, sugar-coated and catchy enough and dramatic enough to be legitimately attention-grabbing. The virality that many of his songs have seen transcends all the Benson Boone hate out there anyway. I do like the fact that he is a legitimate pop dude out here that is a little kooky, doesn't seem to take himself too seriously, and seemingly wants to just make some fun music and has some vocal chops, too, actually.

While I didn't love any of the singles going into this album, I was still hoping to walk away having heard something good or at least gotten a sense of what makes Benson Boone tick as an artist. Then after hearing this record, I just feel like this is close but no cigar - the album. While it's not the worst thing in the world, it does suffer from some pretty key issues.

Now, like I said earlier, Benson Boone does have this flamboyant very playful attitude and presentation to him, and I think this works best on highlights like "Mr Electric Blue", which actually did see a music video release that coincided with the album. I like the silly vibes that Benson is bringing on this song and this visual, but sometimes this side of Benson's personality manifests in very obnoxious song ideas, like how the song "Mystical Magical" made it out of the studio is beyond me. Not only because the silly Tiny Tim type vibratos on the hook are just so grating, but a lot of the lyrics on this song are all about pestering a woman that's rejecting you again and again and again and again until what? She just drops the will to resist you and just lets your love that you're so convinced is going to be amazing happen. Ew!

And Benson's vocals, while I can acknowledge that there is some skill behind what he's doing in terms of those really strained, aggressive high notes he's always hitting, his singing is a double-edged sword. The song "Man in Me", for example, I think songwriting-wise is an okay track, but if there is something that makes this song appealing to me, it is the fact that Benson vocally here is actually trying to sell it. I actually feel what he's claiming on the chorus of this track, that this love that he was in was driving him crazy.

On the other hand, though, there are even more moments on this LP where Benson is singing or performing perfectly decent or catchy songs, but then he insists on singing them in a way that is just grating and unlistenable. Again, I know people really love that aggressive, over the top, "please stay!" scream moment. It's cool, it's fine, it works within the song, but we don't need to keep trying ways to force it into other tracks where it doesn't work.

That's the thing. Benson Boone has a handful of tricks that he knows and that he understands gets a reaction out of people, and he's just always trying to find ways to force those things into his music or into a performance or a persona or just any time you catch a glimpse of him. Oh, man, he's screaming. Oh, man, he's backflipping. Oh, man, he's wearing a jumpsuit. I understand where that response comes from. Benson Boone, on some level, I'm sure, is annoyed that much of the public just views him as the backflip guy or the blue jumpsuit guy. But continually leaning into those things and being like, Yeah, look at me. I actually am, post-ironically, the blue jumpsuit guy... It's just further reinforcing that view of you.

I don't know. The joke is going over everyone's head, and the joke isn't even that good. Well, you guys think I'm the backflip guy? Let me show you how much versatility and range I actually have by doing more backflips.

I'm digressing. There are more terrible vocal passages and ideas on this record, like with the damn scatting on the opening of "I Want to be the One You Call", which is just way too much for what sounds like a boneless Strokes song with bland overproduced instrumentation. And speaking of influences, there are other tracks on this record where I feel like Benson... he is reheating nachos a little bit, and he's not doing a great job of, like, spinning these very obvious influences into something that isn't so distracting or deja vu, like the song "Mama Song", for example, which I like what Benson is doing on this track lyrically – it's quite heartening as far as a tribute to your mother goes. But with the song musically, I feel like he just heard Adele perform a track that sounded like this one time, and he decided, That's what I'm going to attempt to do.

But I feel like the thing Benson attempts to do the most on this record is try to evoke a certain era of '80s music, this very righteous and epic and self-affirming fusion of rock and Americana and pop, like these big, over-the-top dramatic tunes set for the arena. And while now I think is a very interesting time to bring that sound back, I just don't think Benson is all that great at it. He doesn't bring a whole lot of bite to this style. It sounds too glossy, too artificial. Moments where he's doing this, like the closing track, just reads like a bunch of empty platitudes toward romance and patriotism, when in fact, a lot of the artists who built this sound for Benson to, later down the road, copy, had more to offer in their songs other than romanticized nostalgia. Their views on America were actually quite nuanced, be it Springsteen or Mellencamp or whoever.

So, yeah, sadly, I wasn't really into this Benson Boone album. "Electric Blue", that's a cool track. That's a cool track. The rest of it I could take, but mostly leave. But who's to say? Maybe the next album will be better. Maybe Benson will control himself a bit more vocally and realize that there's more life than feeding people backflips. I'm feeling a light 3 on this album.

Anthony Fantano, Benson Boone, Forever.