Brendan Benson's album opens with the title track as he laments his non understanding of being under appreciated and overlooked. This is sort of sad and funny at the same time as it is pretty true and he's got a point.Benson is a great songwriter and has a gift that most would sell their souls for if that prophecy was a real option. His skill as a musician is again, wow the guy only plays guitar, bass, keyboards, drums and so on. His stint with Jack White in The Raconteurs is his biggest commercial success I guess. He worked with Jason Faulkner which is so damn awesome that he sits a little higher on the food chain in my music world for that reason alone.
I first discovered him seriously with the album The Alternative To Love from 2005 which is one of my favorites of the year and has one of my all-time favorite songs on it. This album has one of those candidates as well titled "Happy Most Of The Time" that bounces along and doesn't dare you to dance it reaches out of the speakers and grabs your ass and makes you. This is what bands like Squeeze always wished they could write on a consistent basis which they did do now and again to great success but I don't know if they pulled off a song this good.
Brendan does his best Ray Davies on "Here In The Deadlights" with a white hot chorus. The song walks around a psychedelic melody in the verses and breakdown but always maintains that Kinks feel. It is a total shame that this guy isn't a household name because he just does everything right. He takes pieces from the past and adds them to his power pop greatness and own charm to create music that would make Rick Nelson and Robin Zander jealous. This is an album that Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson tried to record many times but just didn't have the songwriting chops to achieve it but they can both sit back and listen to how their great careers and talents inspired one of the best rock artists of the 2000's.
The stark lushness of "No One Else But You" is jaw dropping and really makes me miss Jellyfish even more than I do on a daily basis. One thing that makes this album so damn sheik is the fact it was recorded completely in analog. You can hear all the glorious instruments in their natural form which is almost unheard of in 2012.
I can continue to gush all night about Brendan's genius and how this album is better than everything on radio and television and yes it's even better than Jack White's latest stroke of genius. But I will just do as Steven Tyler asked us and let the music do that talking. So go buy this album and give your ears an opportunity to hear what great music is and how wonderful it can make your life. This is surely the album to inspire an entire generation of young unknown budding rockers.
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