Genre/Influences: Cold-wave, ambient.

Background/Info: “Crawling” is the third album by the French solo-project Meager Benefits. Set up by Theo Parlier it also is the third album in less than two years.

Content: “Crawling” sounds pretty minimalistic, getting back to some familiar cold-wave influences, but also touched by an ambient-orientated approach. The songs have been composed with guitar, bass guitar and synthesizer. The vocals are rather discrete and often creating a ghost-like effect.

+ + + : Meager Benefits sounds a bit unusual. I like this global approach, which injects a minimal touch to the songs. There’s an intriguing fusion between cold-wave and ambient music, which is accentuated by spooky vocals. The 80s influences are cool. The most significant song appears to be “Moans” for the great guitar playing, which brings something Eastern-like in the song.

– – – : I’m missing a bit more vocals throughout the songs. The songs are pretty similar and missing an ultimate point.

Conclusion: “Crawling” is an album featuring a few interesting ideas, but which now need to be a bit more elaborated. You can feel there’s more hiding inside this project than what came out on “Crawling”.

Best songs: “Moans”, “No Regrets”, “Isolation”.

Rate: (6½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/MeagerBenefits

Label: www.facebook.com/Solange–endormie-196288760967010