"The main thing connections like that does is actually very positive. It turns people’s heads and gets you attention, but you really need to be prepared with something worth listening too. Right now, I feel ready."

So says son of James Taylor and Carly Simon, Ben Taylor. The 29-year-old, who’d have guessed, singer-songwriter. He was talking to promote his second album, Another Run Around the Sun, which was recorded in London’s RAK studios and produced by both Kevin Bacon (no, no that one) and Jonathan Quarmby.

Clearly inspired by love and its subsequent tangled web of emotion, Taylor looks into his heart on his sophomore effort. “You must’ve fallen, down, from out of the sky, when you were too high from flying around, I swear to God you must be some kind of ghost in disguise, the way you haunt me when it comes down” he sings like a man possessed on the bluesy ‘You Must’ve Fallen’. And yet another signpost to his main muse occurs in the title and extended chorus of the penultimate track, ‘Love’.

There’s a quirkiness to Taylor’s output, not least on ‘Think a Man Would Know’ which employs classic folk repetition to create an eerie echo. In a way, he’s like a male version of Fiona Apple. It’s interesting then to discover that the two share a drummer in Larry Ciancia.

Apparently, Benny Boy wasn’t entirely sure he wanted to follow his parents or big sis Sally into the music business. To the extent he toyed with the idea of being a gardener or farmer. But with Another Run Around the Sun, a musical career seems Taylor-made for him.
(4/5)