The New Music

A lot has happened in the four years since Detroit singer-songwriter Brendan Benson released his last album. He’s gone on to taste some much deserved success with his band the Raconteurs, despite the fact that his name isn’t that much more known than it was before he teamed up with his #1 fan, Jack White.

But thankfully Benson has found some time to end his solo career’s hiatus, which probably has something to do with Jack’s commitment to the Dead Weather and his various other projects that hopefully include sister Meg.

If you ask me, Jack’s busy schedule is both Benson and his fan base’s gain. While he’s proven he can match buddy Jack in the Raconteurs, his solo work has always been where he shined brightest. A stickler for melody, if there ever was one, Benson’s AM-flavoured power pop has evolved over his four albums, moving from fuzzy guitar riffing to string-led orchestration, but more than ever, he achieves all of his grandest ideas yet with My Old, Familiar Friend.

Picking up where 2005’s under appreciated The Alternative To Love left off, Benson brought in respected alt-rock guru Gil Norton (Pixies, Foo Fighters, Jimmy Eat World) to help out - obviously a sign of his profile rising. The results are more of the exquisitely arranged power pop we’ve come to love from him, with a few surprises here and there.

“A Whole Lot Better” takes things back to the days when his obvious idol Todd Rundgren wrote this kind of stuff in his sleep. Speedy, driving guitars, undulating Moog and a mushy breakdown where he poetically wears his big heart on his sleeve, proclaiming “I fell in love with you and out of love with you and back in love with you, all in the same day.”

And it gets even better for fans of Benson’s witty love letters, which grow even more adorably poignant on “Garbage Day.” Over some intoxicating strings that sound right out of Berry Gordy’s catalogue, Benson tells us: “If she throws her heart away/I’ll be there on garbage day/To sift through what’s left I guess/To sort through the loneliness/and I don’t mind, no I don’t mind if all the neighbours can see me/I’ll take whatever I can get, what I can get it it’s that easy.”

The strings do get a little too ostentatious on the suffocating “You Make A Fool Out of Me” but that’s the only real misstep here. ELO-inspired combinations of synths and piano add plenty of warm texture to “Gonowhere” and “Feel Like Taking You Home,” while anyone looking to revisit One Mississippi’s driving guitars can look to “Poised and Ready” or “Don’t Wanna Talk,” a fizzy number with stadium-sized drums.

While My Old, Familiar Friend likely won’t eclipse the success he’s experienced with the Raconteurs, it’s another testament to Benson’s songwriting prowess and as strong an album as any of his work. If anything, it should convince Raconteurs fans out there that Jack isn’t the most talented songwriter in the band.

Listen to it here.

Artist: Brendan Benson
Album: My Old, Familiar Friend
Release Date: August 18, 2009
Label: Maple Music Recordings
Genre: Alternative Pop Rock
Author: Cam Lindsay

Track Listing:

1. A Whole Lot Better
2. Eyes On The Horizon
3. Garbage Day
4. Gonowhere
5. Feel Like Taking You Home
6. You Make A Fool Out Of Me
7. Poised And Ready
8. Don’t Wanna Talk
9. Misery
10. Lesson Learned
11. Borrow