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The Broken Family DaySaver (CD Album, 2008)

£10 (+ £2 postage and packaging worldwide).

“A booty bag of avid odes to poppers, kids and wonderboys; he’s an understated emancipator of lyrical wisdom.”Plan-B.

“Haunting, heart-bruising tales bitterly stumble into each other as if played by a meth-ed up, homeless Johnny Marr. The dark humour and stark honesty of Ben Calvert is paralysing, and charmingly so.” The Fly.

“Although Ben Calvert has a folk heart, it is a folk heart which has been broken on indie dancefloors to the sounds of Blur and The Smiths. An accomplished piece of art.”
Indie mp3.co.uk

The Leafy Underground (CD Album, 2003)

£10 (+£2 postage and packaging worldwide)

“There’s something supernatural about Ben Calvert’s voice when it’s stripped bare, moving around the speakers as though the tape operator is running it through his fingers rather than round the capstan. It evokes a melancholy air and spooked atmosphere, but it’s his heart that delivers. The Leafy Underground is mesmerising.”
Logo.

“Calvert recorded parts of his debut album at The Royal Academy of Music and a small church in his native Moseley. That gives you a rough idea of where he’s coming from. A mix of solo numbers with just acoustic guitar, some fleshed out with flute or piano and some featuring the band he recently toured with in 2002, it’s firmly in Nick Drake/Ben Watt/Syd Barrett leafy English post folk territory. There are also hints of Pete Atkin, Nico, Robin Williamson, Noel Harrison and early Roy Harper in there too. Images of autumn gardens, wooded lanes, and all things quintessentially old fashioned England tumble into the head as he sings of sitting watching ducks on Sunday morning. With just voice and piano accompaniment, the haunting Ides of March sounds what you might imagine English spirituals to sound like if such things existed.

With big orchestration and a bigger budget Last Orders could easily translate into the sort of stadium sweller beloved of Coldplay. He’s happier though to shoot for more modest targets. I’d say the new Tom McRae would be about right.
Mike Davies, The Column/Brum Beat

love;defenestrated (5 track single, 2005)

£5 (+£2 postage and packaging worldwide)

‘Dark modern folk sung with beguiling West Midlands inflections. A collection of folk melancholia haunted by the shadows of Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and The Smiths.’ Joe Murphy, blang!

“Flee is a soft and delicious slice of near nakedly drawn early Marr-esque musings, that in truth is quite perfect for these sultry days. Beyond that the only thing you need now is that you ought to investigate Ben Calvert further for yourself.” Losing Today

“Bittersweet songs about lost love, love; defenestrated is a heart warmingly beautiful collection of songs. It’s like being told some bad news while the informer is smiling sweetly. It is hard not to fall in love with these songs.” antifolk.co.uk

the state of travel (4 track 7″ vinyl single, 2001)

£5 (+£2 postage and packaging worldwide)

Each track on this release was recorded in a single take with musicians borrowed on the spot from London’s The Royal Academy of Music. Holly Hernadez of the Melody Maker reviewed the state of travel in her ‘Demo Hell’ in Melody Maker. In a column usually dedicated to ripping submissions to shreds, she said that the tracks were ’sweetly melancholic’ with ‘luxurious tone’. Leeds For The Winter was championed by John Peel and received repeated airplay on his Radio One show. Other national radio stations in Europe soon followed suit, asserting Ben’s position as a pioneer of the UK Post-Folk scene.