After performing a major concert last 2022, winning the Awit Awards in 2020, and being the third most streamed Filipino band on Spotify in 2019, nine-piece folk-pop powerhouse Ben&Ben has come a long way since their debut album Limawasa Street. It is a grand opus that highlights identical twin vocalists Paolo and Miguel Benjamin’s signature vocal harmonies, matched with an ensemble — Pat Lasaten, Agnes Reoma, Jam Villanueva, Keifer Cabugao, Poch Barretto, Toni Muñoz and Andrew de Pano — that demonstrates vast technical skill with their own respective instruments. Arguably, they’ve reached previously unscalable heights in the industry of Original Pilipino Music.
Three years after their last album, Pebble House, Vol. 1: Kwaderno, the singer-songwriters are back with a long-awaited third full-length release, The Traveller Across Dimensions — a concept album. The Traveller Across Dimensions is now part of the canon of other concept albums in OPM alongside Fruitcake by Eraserheads in the ‘90s, Critical Condition by Stick Figgas in the 2000s, and Galactik Fiestamatik by Rico Blanco in the 2010s.
The album was heavily anticipated, announcing the involvement of production houses such as Lunchbox Production and YouMeUsMNL, artists Pumapapel Crafts, animators Puppeteer Studios, and musical collaborator Ziv. It has this Disney-esque quality to the production, complete with elaborate costumes, a grand storyboard, and actual animated characters. Even the two-minute trailer sets up an intense atmosphere that the album was expected to showcase.
For all its worth, The Traveller Across Dimensions is a statement for the band. But will it ever surpass the hype it generated after its release? Not really.
Opening the 13-track album is “The Traveller” where the titular character is introduced by the twins’ harmonious vocals. They describe the main protagonist, Liwanag, as a traveler journeying across dimensions in search of acceptance. This album concept alone was promising, as long as they kept the world intact. But listening to the rest of it feels like anticipation set up for disappointment.
Album highlights like “Could Be Something,” “Burn,” and “Courage” were released prior to the album announcement. But throughout its release cycle, these singles never hinted at a story that would take place in the universe of the album. These tracks showed significant improvement over the band’s lush instrumentation, mixed with flourishing synthesizers and technical prowess with the lead guitars — almost departing from their folk-pop beginnings for a fresh new start. These songs are, in itself, worth considering as the band’s best portrayal of their matured songwriting. But to include it all in a concept album? These pieces don’t necessarily fit into the puzzle; it lacks the necessary world (dimension?)-building to truly create an immersive experience for the listener.
Their soundscapes and mastery of melodies are undeniably present in this album. As for the characters Liwanag and companion Puhon searching for self-discovery, a significant amount of vagueness in these themes act as a detriment alongside the band’s scale of instrumentation. In doing so, Ben&Ben simply end up dipping their toes in the shallow waters of their supposed riverbed of ideas.
The spectacle of the character is vital to the concept album. It is through the character where audiences walk in their shoes and journey along into the unknown. Liwanag is the reason why this album exists. But with all the hugot, motivational lyrics, and powerful vocals heard throughout tracks like “Triumph,” “Comets,” and “Shutter,” The Traveller Across Dimensions, in its entirety, doesn’t paint a sufficient picture of Liwanag to relate to its characters.
On the surface, if the listener would disregard the animation and story, the band’s musical direction is rather incoherent: “Tomorrow With You” is a callback to their previous brand of folk-pop with the dramatic violins, guitar solos, and a saxophone that’s disconnected to the rest of the experimental tracks; “Burn” and its textured synthwork have its moments, yet sit awkwardly in the middle of the album; “Peace of Mind” is an emotionally-lacking take on Imogen Heap with its robotic autotune of the twin’s voices. Combine all these elements with characters that ironically act as non-entities in the album — non-playable characters with amazing animation — and what you get is a fruitless endeavor from start to finish.
Altogether, Ben&Ben’s The Traveller Across Dimensions is a concept album that doesn’t stick the landing. Its story feels restrained, the music is detached from its themes, and their style completely lacks substance. Is it a return to form? Dimensions away from it.
