Radical Face

Radical Face is a musical act whose main member is Ben Cooper, who sings and plays multiple instruments.[1] All the sounds are put together on a computer.[1] Cooper is also in Electric President, an electronic music group. However, Radical Face has an acoustic sound.[1]

Radical Face
Radical Face - Haldern Pop Festival 2017 - Alexander Kellner - 2 (cropped).jpg
Radical Face at Haldern Pop Festival 2017.
Background information
BornJacksonville, Florida
OriginJacksonville
Genresfolk, electronic
Occupation(s)Singer, songwriter
Years active2000–present
LabelsBear Machine Records, Nettwerk Music Group
Websitewww.radicalface.com

Radical Face's music has been on television programmes and in the movie Wish I Was Here.[2]

History

Cooper's first album to be recorded under the name Radical Face was The Junkyard Chandelier (2003). The album was never released. However, it can be downloaded for free online. Ghost was the first official studio album, released in March 2007.

On November 16, 2010, Cooper released an EP titled Touch The Sky. It was a preview for a trilogy of albums called Family Tree. This trilogy is about a fictional family from the 1800s, the Northcotes.[3] It is also really about Cooper's own life.[4] The albums are The Roots, The Branches, and The Leaves.

Another EP, The Bastards: Volume One, was released before The Roots. In August 2011, iTunes accidentally released The Roots to users outside of the US. It was released in the US on October 4, 2011.[5]

The Family Tree: The Branches was released on October 22, 2013 in America and on November 1 in Europe. The Bastards: Volume Two was also released that year.

The Bastards: Volume Three and The Bastards: Volume Four were both released in 2015, before the release of The Family Tree: The Leaves in March 2016.[6] The Leaves has songs that are about Cooper's own life.[4]

Clone, an album by Ben Cooper and Richard Colado, was supposed to be released before fall of 2012, but it kept getting delayed.[7] The first track of the album, "The Laboratory", was finally released on September 23, 2014.[8] Cooper then released one track per week.

Discography

Albums

Title,
Notes on release
Track listing
The Junkyard Chandelier

2003

Self-released.

  1. "Stitches In My Side" - 3:27
  2. "The Scarecrows Are Marching" - 4:51
  3. "Martyr" - 3:47
  4. "Chewing Bottles" - 5:14
  5. "Junkyard Chandelier" - 6:18
  6. "Paper Birds" - 4:24
  7. "Fog In The House Of Lightbulbs" - 6:43
  8. "Runs In The Sidewalk" - 5:36
  9. "Confidants And Fish Hooks" - 4:59
  10. "Pockets Full Of Ink" - 5:21
  11. "Burning Bridges" - 3:13
Ghost

Released in 2007.

"Welcome Home" was awarded Song of the year by "Which?"

  1. "Asleep On A Train" - 2:00
  2. "Welcome Home" - 4:45
  3. "Let The River In" - 5:05
  4. "Glory" - 6:14
  5. "The Strangest Things" - 4:25
  6. "Wrapped In Piano Strings" - 3:37
  7. "Along The Road" - 4:13
  8. "Haunted" - 4:43
  9. "Winter Is Coming" - 4:20
  10. "Sleepwalking" - 4:43
  11. "Homesick" - 3:39
The Family Tree: The Roots[9]

Released in 2011.

  1. "Names" - 1:15
  2. "A Pound of Flesh" - 3:35
  3. "Family Portrait" - 4:40
  4. "Black Eyes" - 4:44
  5. "Severus and Stone" - 4:28
  6. "The Moon Is Down" - 3:18
  7. "Ghost Towns" - 3:54
  8. "Kin" - 4:04
  9. "The Dead Waltz" - 5:23
  10. "Always Gold" - 5:56
  11. "Mountains" - 4:51
The Family Tree: The Branches[10]

Released in 2013.

  1. "Gray Skies" - 0:43
  2. "Holy Branches" - 3:38
  3. "The Mute" - 3:56
  4. "Reminders" - 3:34
  5. "Summer Skeletons" - 4:51
  6. "The Crooked Kind" - 4:39
  7. "Chains" - 2:11
  8. "Letters Home" - 4:12
  9. "From The Mouth Of An Injured Head" - 4:04
  10. "Southern Snow" - 3:21
  11. "The Gilded Hand" - 6:15
  12. "We All Go The Same" - 3:31
The Family Tree: The Leaves[11]

Released in 2016.

  1. "Secrets (Cellar Door)" - 4:26
  2. "Rivers in the Dust" - 5:45
  3. "Everything Costs" - 3:42
  4. "Midnight" - 3:10
  5. "The Ship in Port" - 3:43
  6. "Photograph" - 2:24
  7. "Third Family Portrait" - 3:45
  8. "The Road to Nowhere" - 4:46
  9. "Old Gemini" - 4:15
  10. "Bad Blood" - 4:51

EPs

Title Year Track listing
Touch The Sky EP 2010
  1. "Welcome Home (EP Version) - 4:47
  2. "Glory (Acoustic)" - 4:34
  3. "Doorways" - 3:00
  4. "A Little Hell" - 2:13
  5. "The Deserter's Song" - 4:55
  6. "Welcome Home (Reprise)" - 2:29
The Bastards: Volume One 2011
  1. "All Is Well (It's Only Blood)" - 2:45
  2. "All Is Well (Goodbye, Goodbye)" - 4:05
  3. "We're On Our Way" - 4:08
Always Gold EP 2012
  1. "Always Gold (Short Attention Span Mix)" - 4:04
  2. "Echoes" - 3:54
  3. "Wandering (Alternative Mix)" - 3:46
  4. "Always Gold (Acoustic)" - 3:38
  5. "We're On Our Way" - 4:07
  6. "Always Gold (Album Version)" - 5:55
The Bastards: Volume Two 2013
  1. "Second Family Portrait" - 4:55
  2. "West" - 4:50
  3. "Letters Home - Aftermath" - 1:18
The Bastards: Volume Three 2014
  1. "Sisters" - 3:49
  2. "Baptisms" - 2:56
  3. "Nightclothes" - 6:54
The Bastards: Volume Four 2015
  1. "Servants And Kings"
  2. "Small Hands"

Singles

Year Title Chart Certification Album
FR
[12]
NED
[13]
SWI
2011 "Welcome Home" 83 24 38 Ghost

Music videos

Year Song Album
2007 Welcome Home Ghost
2010 Doorways Touch The Sky EP
2012 We're On Our Way The Bastards: Volume One
2012 A Pound of Flesh The Family Tree: The Roots
2012 Always Gold The Family Tree: The Roots
2013 Holy Branches The Family Tree: The Branches
2014 The Mute The Family Tree: The Branches
2016 Secrets (Cellar Door) The Family Tree: The Leaves
2016 The Road To Nowhere The Family Tree: The Leaves

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 Richardson, Mark (13 April 2007). "Radical Face: Ghost Album Review" (Web). Pitchfork. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  2. Matheson, Whitney (8 July 2014). "Video premiere: Radical Face's 'The Mute'" (Web). USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved 18 May 2016.
  3. "Review: Radical Face, The Family Tree: The Roots | Timber and Steel". Timberandsteel.wordpress.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  4. 4.0 4.1 NPR staff (4 April 2016). "When The Page Becomes A Mirror: A Chat With Radical Face". www.npr.org. National Public Radio. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  5. "Radical Face – Touch The Sky [EP]". Randomville.com. 2011-01-19. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  6. Robin Murray (2016-01-28). "Premiere: Radical Face - 'Secrets (Cellar Door)'". Clash.
  7. "YouTube". YouTube. Archived from the original on 2016-06-30. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  8. "Clone | Act 1: The Laboratory". YouTube. 2014-09-23. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  9. Diver, Mike (2012). "Radical Face The Family Tree: The Roots Review". www.bbc.co.uk. BBC. Retrieved 5 April 2016. Truly, this is a rare treasure of a collection; one that, through elegant economy, manages to convey more emotion than any act whose idea of layering on sentimentality begins and ends with the employment of a string section.
  10. Schell, Aled. "Radical Face: The Branches". Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  11. Menyes, Carolyn (24 March 2016). "Ben Cooper Talks the Therapy of Radical Face's New Album 'Family Tree: The Leaves': Interview". www.musictimes.com. Retrieved 5 April 2016.
  12. Steffen Hung. "Discographie Radical Face". lescharts.com. Retrieved 2015-10-11.
  13. Steffen Hung. "Discografie Radical Face". dutchcharts.nl. Retrieved 2015-10-11.

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