Constant Smiles - Control (2020)

The latest Constant Smiles album, Control,  is a richly atmospheric and rewarding experience, blurring the lines of dreampop, shoegaze, and psych while building its own singular sonic world. The creative force behind the Brooklyn-based group is the prolific songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Ben Jones, who has created dozens of albums’ worth of music in his home studio. Control confronts what he has now named his “destructive creative drive,” and in turning the machine back on itself, he has managed to create his most transformative work to date.  

Control follows 2019’s John Waters, and it  anchors Jones’s signature reverb-drenched grooves in a palpable intensity. The multi-layered guitar tracks are lush, but there's a crooner’s depth here, akin to the best Chris Isaak songs. Soothing wah-wah pedals and drifting vocals blend with driving drum tracks to hypnotize the listener, while never losing command of their full attention. On standout tracks like “You're on Your Own” and “All Drugs,” Jones and his collaborators wrangle every musical trick they have mastered and infuse them with a bare and poignant  vulnerability. The listener is invited into a deeply intimate and personal space to join Jones as he processes an intense period of personal grief through musical alchemy. Across Control’s 12 tracks, you can hear the artist diving deep into his internal conflicts, grappling with addiction, the aforementioned destructive creative drive, and scarring loss.

“Writing, collaborating on and recording  Control  has been a process of personal transformation as an artist and a person,” Jones says. “During the past year I’ve reexamined everything in my life, and in the process learned to create music and an existence that  is  more sustainable, letting go of the things I can’t control. This ultimately leads to a deeper pool of creativity.”

In addition to finding greater depths of creativity, Jones has also allowed his vocals to come to the front of the mix more than in previous recordings, and the resulting sound puts  Control  in the lineage of great singer-songwriters like Elliott Smith.

Growing up on Martha’s Vineyard, Jones worked at Aboveground Records, a hub for the tiny island’s surprisingly vibrant arts community and music scene. “Everyone was always playing in each other's bands, home recording, performing. It was amazing,” Jones recalls.

Control taps back into that community, and it’s the most collaborative Constant Smiles record to date. Jones worked with co-producer Mike Mackey, along with a long list of musical kindred spirits, including Spike Currier, Nina Violet,  Adam Lipsky,  Celeste Glavin,  James Whitehead,  Sofi Thanhauser,  Blaze Bateh,  Bridget Collins, and  Adam Howell.  “I love that you can create a whole world within an album,” Jones says of the process of collaboration for Control. “You expand the dimensions and richness of that world by including other people’s songs in the mix, keeping the collective spirit of the community alive.”