He’s best known now as the stable, sweet-singing sheriff to Jack White’s braying outlaw in The Raconteurs. But there’s a whole other side to Brendan Benson, one many of us have never heard. My Old, Familiar Friend is Benson’s fourth solo album and it’s a great place to meet the real Benson, a man whose quiet songwriting talents rival those of anyone else in music today.
To get started try out this track – A Whole Lot Better:
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We’ve got one more for you – this is Feel Like Taking You Home, right-click for a free download.
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REVIEW OF REVIEWS
Benson’s album are always extremely catchy and pleasurable to listen to and if we have any criticism it’s that they tend to get too sweet at times, and are best imbibed in nugget-sized form. We suspect fans of Matthew Sweet suffer this same aural exhaustion. Benson’s new album album, My Old, Familiar Friend, is still catchy as hell, but there’s now a slightly raw rock edge to the songs that has transformed them tasty bites into something we want in an IV bag on a continual loop.
Recorded in Nashville and London with producer Gil Norton, Friend is a journey around varied retro-pop territories, moving through new wave nerves, Motown grooves, classic rock muscle and lush string arrangements.
Benson ties it together with crisp vocals and old-school sensibility — nearly every song shares its title with its obvious lyrical hook. Friend also represents an opportunity for Benson to gain a bigger audience than ever before, thanks to the success of the Raconteurs, who have performed for massive crowds in the States and Europe and earned a Grammy for their 2008 album, Consolers of the Lonely.
TRACKLIST
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
VIDEOS
BEST SHOTS
