Most artists spend a lot of time questioning things—Why? How? What if? These are the questions that spark new creations and directions.
In many cases, somewhere along their own unique creative path, an artist will encounter a moment where it feels like something is off—a moment where they may ask those questions of themselves. For example: What if, instead of doing what my audience expects, I let go of every single preconception that either of us has about my work, and just followed wherever my instincts lead me?
These are the sorts of questions I imagine Ben Bostick asked himself around the time he came up with the idea for his new album Become Other.
Over the past decade singer-songwriter-multi-instrumentalist-producer Bostick has built a community of fans and followers. Starting out in the “outlaw country” genre—think Willie and Waylon and Kris—he developed a reputation as an uncommonly thoughtful songwriter, as well as a gifted, charismatic performer who thoroughly inhabits the characters in his songs.
Each new outing represented an evolution of some sort, from the winking parodies of his debut EP My Country (2015) to the rangy subject matter of Ben Bostick (2017), to the wildman-on-a-bender honky-tonk rave-up Hellfire (2018), to the much quieter, hung-over-and-regretful Among The Faceless Crowd (2020). Then came his first breakout album, the deeply personal singer-songwriter collection Grown Up Love (2021)—and then he circled back for a fresh round of outlaw country on The Rascal Is Back (2023).
In other words, his creative path sketched a circle, returning him more or less to where he began. The Rascal Is Back is a terrific collection of songs, that has been his most popular recording to date—and also an album Bostick says he found unfulfilling to make, because there was no real creative growth or challenge, just further honing of his songwriting and performance skills. At the same time, he observed how AI was threatening to make his art and trade obsolete, and zeroed in on one thing AI cannot do: infuse art with meaning.
So Bostick considered the path he’d traveled, set his eyes on the horizon, and struck out for the most distant point he could imagine.
Given the scarcity of comparable work out there, the temptation is to categorize Bostick’s new album Become Other as a rock opera, but in fact it’s neither rock nor opera—more like a symphony that could double as the soundtrack to a stage musical. It’s a concept album in the truest sense, a linear narrative running 52 minutes, nominally broken into four movements of three segments each, with each movement running 11 minutes or more. The story it tells is fantastical—a psychological myth with lyrics about faith and damnation, fate and free will, monsters and vines. And while the music of Become Other is chiefly orchestral, it also dips into hip-hop, industrial, r&b, ambient, and Broadway.
In other words, it’s really, really, really different—which is startling, and also thrilling.
Movement I (“The Tangle” / “Heavy Heart” / “Star Crossed”) opens with a breath, giving life to both his protagonist and a new creative paradigm for Bostick. The orchestra eases into view, conjuring an eerie soundscape dominated by buzzing synths, until a breakdown to just bass and electronic percussion introduces a hip-hop-themed tour through this hellish place.
The “Heavy Heart” segment moves the music to a quieter space. “I was born with a heavy heart,” sings Bostick against a billowing backdrop of synths and percussion. “It broke me, mama, and I cannot be repaired.” The sizzling, ominous synths and spooky percussion return for “Star Crossed” as our narrator declares “I am cursed, I am tortured by the object of my dreams.”
Using both natural ability and production techniques, Bostick transforms his voice again and again between and within segments, bringing added dimension to different moments. This ability shouldn’t surprise; Bostick’s outsider-country identity has always felt like a part he was playing, with an inherent theatricality.
Erasing any remaining doubts about range, Movement II (“Flying High” / “GNTL HZ” / “Eyes In The Vines”) opens with a smooth electro r&b flow that works beautifully, as Bostick’s narrator experiences momentary euphoria (“Flying High” is also the album’s first single). The music turns ambient for the spare, serene instrumental “GNTL HZ,” featuring synth harp and strings, all seeming calm until we flow directly into “Eyes In The Vines,” a waking nightmare that finds our narrator’s mental state continuing to deteriorate.
Movement III (“The Weaver” / “Cocoon” / “Become Other”) opens with a thumping industrial segment as Bostick’s filtered-and-distorted vocals essay a dialogue between man and mirror. Middle segment “Cocoon” features a dramatic soliloquy with orchestral backing, as our narrator realizes the source of his problems: himself. “The doctor and the disease / The spider caught in what he weaves / If I can make / My own prison, I know / I can break it.” The album’s title segment employs the eternal tension between dark and light as backdrop for our narrator’s moment of transformation: “A new creation is dawning / Silence the heart and be still / And become other.”
The final movement (IV, “World Without Measure” / “By Darkness Forged” / “Transfigured Night”) opens with triumphant orchestral music; our narrator’s eyes have been opened and he’s finally fully awake:
“My senses
A prism
Infinite
My vision
Now I see…
The whole world
Is glory
The whole world
Is within me”
This moment bleeds into “By Darkness Forged,” an anthem to resilience, with church organ overtones emphasizing the spiritual component of the message: “I am the light by darkness forged / I can’t be dimmed nor be put out / Oh I, I am the night / I am the faith tempered in doubt.” Final segment “Transfigured Night” serves as the denouement, gentle and contemplative, reprising various themes from throughout the piece on its way to a gentle close.
Other than Amanda Belair’s background vocals on “Flying High,” Bostick created every sound heard on this album, and self-produced it in his home studio. The only way to appreciate the full scope of that accomplishment—and it is genuinely astonishing—is to listen.
Okay, fine, say Curious Reader… but what’s the album about?
The album is about… the album.
No, seriously: Ben Bostick has created a work of art that’s about the act of creating art, and how the light of creation can help to free an artist from darkness. It also touches on the divine essence of the act of creation, inasmuch as forging a new piece of art is as close as humans will ever get to playing God.
Additionally, there’s an important message about the nature of art. At its core, art is all about transformation: mostly about the artist transforming an idea into a finished work, but also about how the act of creation transforms the artist. It’s clear from talking with Bostick that the act of creating Become Other has transformed him in meaningful ways, allowing him to stretch himself in ways that genre-based work couldn’t.
The beauty of Become Other—beyond the achievement itself—is that it obliterates all expectations for what Ben Bostick might do next. It’s a declaration of artistic independence, a flex of creative muscles that showcases the breadth of his abilities and creative imagination. Whether his next project is outsider country, singer-songwriter, a Broadway musical, or a film score, he’s already proven he has both the vision and the compositional, technical and performance skills to pull it off. I can’t wait to hear what happens next.