Benson Boone, Pretty Slowly | Song Review 🎵

Handsome and talented pop singer/songwriter Benson Boone strikes gold once more with his honest, breakup-fueled single, “Pretty Slowly.”

If you’ve got it, then flaunt it. Benson Boone without a shirt = fire. More pertinent than showing off his chiseled bod on the cover art of his single, “Pretty Slow”, is showing off those big, dynamic pipes.  The boy can sing. “Pretty Slowly” arrives post-Fireworks & Rollerblades (another shirtless cover for the 22-year-old). Boone, Evan Blair, and Jack LaFrantz penned it.  Blair also produced it. The results = positive!

The first thing that catches the ear in “Pretty Slow” is Boone’s vocals.  His tone is beautiful, including his middle register and falsetto.  He’s supported by a folk-pop backdrop.  As “Pretty Slow” progresses (the chorus, specifically), Benson ratchets up the vocal intensity. The second iteration of the chorus, after the second verse is even bigger.  Notably, the chorus is lengthier than usual but that’s part of the allure and charm:

“And it started pretty slowly

Oh, when you asked about the old me

‘Oh, is he gone? Oh, is he gone?’ Oh, I don’t know

I think I left him somewhere I no longer go…

And it’s falling into pieces

No there’s not a way that we can stop this now…”

Then, he brings things down.  The bridge is more poised, accompanied initially by an acoustic rhythm guitar.  No worries, Boone nor the music doesn’t stay low.  The instrumentation picks up, as does Boone’s volume and vocal register.  He gets high and powered TF up as he sings, “Oh, there’s still two lovers / So who the hell are we?” Before all of this goes down, Boone is reflective regarding a past relationship. He’s honest, even dropping a few baby swears in the mix.  “When I’m driving through the Rockies / And I feel this little knife in my heart / And it bleeds me out / Don’t wanna love, I don’t wanna love you now,” he sings at the end of the first verse.  In the second, he asserts, “I wanna know if you’re okay, mm / And I hope that you’re so damn sure that leaving me was right.” Oh, snap! Once again, our shirtless-loving, big-voiced Gen-Z singer/songwriter comes through big. “Pretty Slowly”, hence, is pretty damn good.

Benson Boone // “Pretty Slowly” // Night Street / Warner // 2024

Benson Boone, Pretty Slowly [📷: Brent Faulkner/The Musical Hype; Night Street / Warner; Clker-Free-Vector-Images, Królestwo Nauki, OpenClipart-Vectors, Pete Linforth, Tumisu from Pixabay]