Sometimes you aim for The Smiths, and land on Belle and Sebastian. And quickly realize it all worked out perfectly in the end. That seems to be the case for New York artist Liam Benzvi, and in particular, the title track from his debut album, Acts of Service, an LP fluent with emotive dream-pop that released this past Friday (February 18) via Terrible Records.
“I wanted it to have a ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ Smiths-type groove to it, and I think now it kind of sounds like Belle and Sebastian,” Benzvi tells Flood. “It’s the love language I offer others, not the one I accept, so lyrically it dances around that idea.”
Benzvi’s Acts of Service album was co-produced by Wet’s Joe Valle after the two met at a residency in New England. The title tracks leads off the 10-track record, written by Benzvi over the past three years, and welcomes a bit of a springtime wonder through its warm modern rock embrace. It sets a lovely tone for 32 minutes of eclectic self-expression.
“It’s about a shift of perspective and approach to writing where I’m reflecting on the world from a new place,” says Benzvi about the album. “For so long, I was writing from the perspective of other people and how I imagined they were experiencing me, and for this record I wanted to write through what I was feeling about the world and see what it looks like on the page.”
It sounds even better through the speakers.