What does a musician do when he finds meaning – and feels that he is losing it again? Bent Joshua recorded a whole album about this. We will be talking about Bent Joshua and his 2025 album “Keep The Faith.” The artist’s experience in the genre of spoken poetry proved very useful in creating this collection of songs. Bent Joshua rarely utters an extra word. The songs are no longer or more ornate than necessary. The artist understands the role of the song format, and although he uses atypical musical elements, the fact remains: all the songs tell a story and contain some kind of memorable motif.
“Keep The Faith” is Bent Joshua’s fourth album. Trap, house and reggaeton coexist calmly here – peculiar scenery in which a much more personal narrative unfolds. “Tired Lately” opens the release softly and naturally – the conversation begins by itself. A calm admission of one’s own fatigue, said directly and openly. The arrangement stays in minimalism: the rhythm moves steadily, there is air between the sounds, every detail gains weight and meaning. Along with smooth melodies reminiscent of sea surf, it sounds half alluring, half anxious and mysterious. Fatigue is only the threshold. Beyond it is “Damaged Thoughts”; its trap framework keeps the track in tension – anxiety, the internal monologue of a person who knows their weak points too well. The first cracks appear: thoughts jump, synths cut through space, and the vocal becomes slightly more detached – the defense mechanism switched on automatically.
From damaged thoughts there is a direct road to prayer, albeit secular. The track “Save My Soul” continues the line but adds dramaturgy – here you can already hear an attempt to hold on to something. The vocal is warmer, and the beat moves into a denser, “club” texture. What could be called house-breath appears: a little more movement. Diverse sound textures create an extremely immersive experience. The record logically leads to “What’s Above Love?” – perhaps the most conceptual track of the album. It hangs between genres: it contains both romantic plasticity and the airiness of house. The vocal dissolves into the arrangement like a thought that did not have time to take shape. Here the work with synthesizers gravitates toward something more cosmic, otherworldly. Bent again plays with moments that are melodic and gloomy, and at times anxious.
Unexpectedly, “Shadows” sounds like a dance track. The reggaeton pulse gives the track physicality, not allowing it to drift into abstraction. A good device: the biggest questions are better asked in motion, not while standing still. “Hypnotized” is just as atmospheric as the previous ones. During the first minute it remains in the territory of a light beat before unfolding into an exciting mood reminiscent of the opening track. Diverse, original interweavings give it a magical aura. “Riding Lawnmower,” the lead single with a piano melody, is a tribute to his grandfather. Piano in a trap track is in itself a small boldness: the instrument is too exposed for a genre that is used to hiding behind hi-hats and sub bass. Here it comes to the forefront. Afraid to scare the image away, the vocal waltzes in half-voice in the musical space. Nostalgia with the smell of motor oil and cut grass, alive and slightly scratching. The final chord – “Full Moon” – gathers everything together. The culmination in terms of inner tension. Here grief is already a constant background that, as the author says, only intensifies with age. The music becomes richer, and the vocal more vulnerable. The finale with an open window – cold, nocturnal, real.
It turned out that talking about Bent Joshua’s music was easier than I had imagined. Although after the first listen the album “Keep The Faith” creates the atmosphere very well, further listening reveals an enviable attentiveness to detail. The album has memorable beats, references to the classics, interesting elements, unobtrusive vocals and poetic metaphors. He found music at the moment when he lost his purpose, and it gave him more meaning than anything else in the world. But now it seems to him that he stands on the threshold of losing this found purpose and is forced to search for a new one to fill the emptiness that grows larger with each day.
And this is exactly what he put into “Keep The Faith.”
A new beginning will inevitably come; nothing lasts forever. The journey is truly more important than the destination.
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