★☆☆☆☆

Nothing quite depicts the overwrought, pseudo-sophisticated emotionality of Ben Howard’s most recent album as much as its satirically formulaic title, “I Forget Where We Were.”

Unlike his past albums, Howard’s pacing does not captivate you with its intensity or upbeat crescendos. Instead, the listener is left to lean weakly on his hyperemotional lyrics and a fumbling banjo, thinking, “I didn’t know Lana Del Rey and NeverShoutNever! had a kid.”

While Howard’s strong voice and supportive synthesizer seem reminiscent of The Killers, the album fails to produce anything new or original; it simply regurgitates faux counter-cultural lingo.

To Howard’s credit, however, he does manage to vary the audible “aesthetic” of each track. “Time is Dancing” is one of the few songs that stands out among its less than spectacular companions. In fact, it is probably the only song I wouldn’t mind replaying on my iPod. It maintains a melancholic, romantic message that aesthetically competes with an upbeat tempo and a pumping synthesizer. This track is similar to what one would find on an album by Young the Giant or a less-flamboyant MisterWives.

Other tracks on the album are reminiscent of an older, folksier genre. “She Treats Me Well” includes the same curt, emotional distance of The Animals’ 1966 recording of “House of the Rising Sun.” Paired with a more sympathetic solo guitar and a piano-backing track, “She Treats Me Well” gives a nod to folk music’s founders.

At the same time, such reiterated themes make the album fall short. Howard assembles the original vibrancy of indie folk, simplifies it and disseminates it to a larger audience — the album is currently #1 on the Official UK Albums Chart. It’s as if he’s trying to demonstrate what indie-folk music should sound like instead of creating any original content himself.

But how does “I Forget Where We Were” differ from Ben Howard’s past albums? Some of his older songs hold permanent positions on my iTunes Top 25 Most Played list, yet his newest venture seems like he took his least popular songs and decided to make an album solely inspired by them.

In his older, more popular songs like “Old Pine” and “Only Love,” there is a clear accompaniment that sounds like Howard is with a band, singing along to its musical backing. But, the same cannot be said of this album. Any accompaniment is drowned out by an endless synthesizer, and listeners are only left with Howard’s lone voice. This overly dependent reliance on his vocals creates an album that exudes solitary dullness, losing the magic generated by his earlier works.

While the album generally falls short of its expectations, there are some salvageable features that can become audibly enjoyable in certain circumstances. If you need quiet background music to study for your next midterm or a melancholic track for a nighttime drive, perhaps Ben Howard can fit your criteria.
Due to the trite nature of many of the songs on this album and its impersonal content, I would advise against making this purchase. It simply does not compete with already successful contemporaries in the genre like Coldplay and The Killers, and it strays too far from the sounds that put Ben Howard on the map in the first place.

Summarily, “I Forget Where We Were” is a convoluted conversation, laden with overly emotional lyrics and very few hooks. Every once in a while, listeners attempt to interpret a song’s meaning, but then they realize that they, too, forgot where they were.