On July 22, 2008, Benji Hughes released his debut album, entitled A Love Extreme on New West Records. A Love Extreme is a double-disc album containing 25 songs. It was recorded with producer and Los Angeles session musician Keefus Ciancia. Hughes' live band during this period contained a rotating cast of members, including Barbara Gruska (of Jenny Lewis and The Belle Brigade) on drums; two of Hughes' former Muscadine bandmates; solo-artist and producer Jonathan Wilson on guitar and backing vocals, and Stacy Leazer on bass and backing vocals; Ciancia on keyboards; solo artist and producer Jon Lindsay on keyboards and vocals,[1] and veteran Charlotte musicians Peter Gray (guitar) and David Kim (drums), among others.[2][3] The album received favorable reviews from some prominent critics, including Jon Pareles of The New York Times[4] and Chuck Klosterman of Esquire,[5] but it sold few copies.[6]
Hughes released four new albums via his website in November 2014. XXOXOXX, Songs in the Key of Animals, and OXOXOXOXOX are bundled as a set on 4 CDs or a flash drive. LILILIL is a children's concept album set in outer space available as a separate purchase on Compact Disc only.[7]XXOXOXX and OXOXOXOXOX were later re-released under the names Another Extreme and A Lover's Extreme (not to be confused with 2008's A Love Extreme) respectively on May 8, 2020.
In August 2015, it was announced that Hughes signed to Merge Records and would release a new full-length album in 2016.[8] The album, Songs in the Key of Animals, was released in 2016.
On May 8, 2020, alongside re-releases of XXOXOXX and OXOXOXOXOX, Hughes released "Spirit Guide", a 47-minute long single.
Reception
Hughes' work has received critical praise.[9]Los Angeles Times critic Mikael Wood called him "something of a cult hero thanks to his brilliant and demented pop records."[10] A 2009 profile of Hughes in The Believer called Hughes "one of the best pop songwriters in America, a musical autodidact and a heavy-hearted leonine balladeer whose confessions from the world off 277 will break your heart."[6] A lengthy 2014 profile by New York music critic Jody Rosen commented that Hughes's extensive following among other musicians and other celebrities was such that "[h]e may have as many famous admirers as civilian ones", and praised his songs for "the way they toss together zingy pop-culture references and traditionalist songcraft; their blend of hepcat shagginess and poetic precision; and especially the mix of wry and lavishly romantic, of tongue-in-cheek and heart-on-sleeve."[11]