LP – Standard Edition Black Vinyl.

Bent thinks of his new indie rock album, Make Em Laugh, as a game of Clue. Hes trying to map out exactly when and how a relationship failed. I was left behind romantically and I was really feeling that, he says. I was wondering, Am I going to be okay? How did I get to a place where were not cool? Was it all me? You can certainly hear moments of heartache, resentment, and regret on Make Em Laugh. On Damn, he fixates on how much he misses someone, and on Need, he comes to terms with the realization that a partner cant meet his emotional needs.
But despite these moments of pain, a sense of soaring optimism drives the album forward. Make Em Laugh is a document of discovery and self-realization, and is full of questions rather than answers. Open-hearted inquiry is a skill he learned in therapy, which he started going to while working on the project. You’re not going to know everything, he says. This world does not give you cheat sheet answers. But as long as you know what you want to know, you can get a bit of freedom from just asking.
Contemplative guitar ballad Wonder opens the record. Bent asks if goodbye will ever sound nice and if my mom and dad will ever be friends. The song also samples audio of other people sharing their own inquiries – if they will be in love forever, if they should have done more for themselves when they were younger. Despite the angst expressed, its a life-affirming moment that shows just how similar all of our worries are. Did you know I got questions? Dont want to feel like Im guessing, Faye Webster croons on Make Em Laugh, the song she features on. She sings about a relationship that topples her understanding of love, leaving her with an exciting new perspective on the world. And on the balmy, free-flowing track Birds Eye View, Bents voice weaves through flute trills, meandering keys, and bird song as he contemplates how to cultivate lasting inner peace. He never lands on an answer, but the propulsion and glimmer of the music offers reassurance that happiness might be within reach.

Bents ability to traverse many complex and conflicting emotional states informs the sound of the music too: the album is dynamic, vibrant, and genre fluid. His warm vocals shine on contemplative indie-rock tracks like Pieces Of Me and Demon. On Too Scared to Say, he employs autotune to convey a sense of swirling confusion, a sentiment that intensifies on experimental electronic track Slimmer. Bent and featured singer AnnonXL trade off verses as the production transforms from crystalline and gentle to thrillingly noisy and energized.

Across these disparate sonic landscapes, Bent sings with a sense of ease and agility that comes, in part, from a lifetime spent singing and playing music. His mother, who is part of a family church choir as well as a Natalie Cole cover band, put him in every choir in the world growing up, which he secretly enjoyed despite worrying it might not be cool. She also put him in voice, piano, and guitar lessons, which he stopped doing in middle school because he preferred playing music to learning about it in academic settings.

After graduating from high school in 2017, Bent got a job as (incredibly) a trombone player in a clown band at an amusement park. He met a lot of musicians at the gig, but still didnt consider making music himself. It wasnt until 2020, when his friend Jason Garland released a song, that Bent realized it was possible for him to be an independent local artist too. He hit up Cameron Smith, the person who produced Jasons song, and they worked on a track together called Funny, which gained traction and caught the attention of indie label Bayonet Records. Bayonet asked him if he had more tracks they could hear. He told them he did (he didnt) and headed to the studio for a few weeks to write the music that would become his 2021 EP Game Over! In 2023, he released his debut album, Can I go again, also with Bayonet.

Bent’s inquisitive nature is evident in this earlier work. He asks what it takes to be truly loved and interrogates moments when he has felt like hes taking up too much space. But while working on Make Em Laugh, he brought a sense of playfulness and fun to the music for the first time. He and producer Carlos Hernandez worked alone. They gave their ideas time to marinate – more time than Bent had given projects before – and ensured that his vision was fully realized. We think really highly of each other and are friends, says Bent. We can be honest with each other, too. I think that makes for a really good collaboration because we’re just like, What about this? What about that? We were having a lot of fun making the record. As a result, these songs feel emotionally nuanced – heartfelt but exuberant and joyous, too – and sonically complex, a diverse array of sounds and feelings tied together by Bents mellifluous vocals.

Bent also really enjoyed working with the artists featured on the album. He discovered Margauxs music when she performed at the Brooklyn venue Babys All Right, where he works, and was excited to realize that fans had already been connecting their work in the YouTube comments on his videos. Faye Webster is his best friend, and someone who he feels matches his aptitude for asking astute questions about relationships. And AnnonXLs whirling, vibrant verse on Slimmer was so good that it pushed Bent creatively. When AnnonXL sent their verse in, I hadnt finished the second part of the song yet, he says. I heard what they sent and was like, Oh, I gotta go harder!

Make Em Laugh may have begun as a way to process a breakup, but, as a body of work, it looks far beyond the specifics of just one relationship. This is music that wonders about the big life questions that connect us all and that finds solace in community. If the album is a game of Clue, its one that captures all the insights and stories of the myriad players in the room as much as it focuses on the outcome of the game itself.

RIYL: Estelle, Mamalarkey, Crumb, Men ITrust, Faye Webster, Clairo, Taphari, Childish Major, Samia,McKinley Dixon, Arlo Parks, Anjimile

Tracklist:

1. Wonder
2. Pieces of Me
3. Damn
4. Hope You Do
5. Too Scared to Say
6. Radio Silence ft. Margaux
7. Slimmer ft. AnnonXL
8. Birds Eye
9. Need
10. Demon
11. Make ‘Em Laugh