Early last year Kerrang! tipped grandson – the stage name for one-man musical chameleon Jordan Edward Benjamin – for big things. But really, that felt like cheating as it was already obvious that the fevered imagination behind the trilogy of EPs that had announced his arrival onto the alternative music scene was doing something a bit special. And don’t be fooled by his debut album title Death Of An Optimist, the freewheeling spirit of invention that Jordan brings to bear across these 12 tracks offer many reasons to be hopeful – despite the corrosive influence of the conceptual devil-on-his-shoulder alter-ego X. Here’s an artist unafraid of flexing his creativity, exploring sounds from whatever genre tickles his fancy, all while making bold if bleak observations about the state of the world...
