Brendan Benson: Low Key
(Schnitzel Data)
LP | DL
Out now
Brendan Benson, one among powerpop’s grasp craftsmen, returns together with his new album, Low Key.
When he was about to launch his final album, Pricey Life, simply because the world locked down, Brendan Benson spoke to us of his newfound love for hip-hop, saying: “I just like the completely different textures. I’m not all the time excited by an acoustic guitar sound so I’m going searching for different inspiration; sounds, textures.” That exploration continues on his new album, Low Key, on which he masterfully combines moments of the minor chord melodies that he’s so well-known for, a line drawn proper again to the powerpop pioneers, with clipped beats underscore his new influences. The 2 sides of his coin now sit side-by-side completely and, after they come collectively, similar to on album opener and single Ain’t No Good, work so as to add a good poppier focus to his songs. He makes use of it to bookend the album, returning with much more sheen on closing observe One thing A Little Like Dwelling. On Pricey Life, the shift was born out of necessity, of getting to work in a restricted area, but it surely’s given one among powerpop’s trendy masters one other device to attract on.
Nevertheless, as on the very best of his work, the melody is King. And Low Key options a few of his greatest work, some songs to rival his personal classics. With a lot of it written and recorded through the imposed isolation of Covid quarantines, the album typically explores that feeling of solitude. It’s pushed to the fore in music titles like Individuals Develop Aside, one of many highlights of the album and within the lyrics to the great piano-led I Missed The Airplane, a music that focuses on a deep self-reflection of in analyzing a misplaced relationship, a subject that Benson has time and acquire revisited, all the time with a bittersweet eye. “Spent my life trying down till there was no life left”, he sings, “Then I regarded as much as discover nobody with me”, earlier than concluding that his solely buddy is a fly buzzing spherical in his room.
In the midst of the album, the one criticism of which actually is that, at eight tracks, feels slightly brief, he drops a fantastic and fairly trustworthy model of Gerry Rafferty’s Proper Down The Line, maybe a fruit of the virtually every day on-line posts he did from his studio throughout lockdowns, fielding requests. On Complete Lot Of Nothing, he’s mining Nick Lowe on one other music that explores the emotions of being minimize off from contacts. Pictures of automobiles with nowhere to go, keys with out locks, and legs that don’t get out a lot, earlier than he drops the road that hammers the scenario dwelling for artists. “The music simply stopped.”
These ready for him to essentially kick in with Townsend windmill guitars received’t be disenchanted when No matter’s On My Thoughts, a music that pokes enjoyable at self-absorption, kicks in, whereas on penultimate music All In, he lets the hip-hop influences again in together with his rapped lyrics, albeit over a mid-tempo acoustic-based backing.
He has said that he regards Low Key virtually as a coda to Pricey Life and it’s true that the 2 complement one another completely, however, given the standard of the album and what we all know Benson can do, at simply eight tracks, it’s arduous to not be left wanting extra. It’s a great factor that the album is one which deserves many repeated listens.
Purchase Low Key right here.
Observe Brendan Benson on Fb, Instagram, and Twitter.
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Phrases by Nathan Whittle. Discover his Louder Than Battle archive right here.
Nathan additionally presents From The Storage on Louder Than Battle Radio each Tuesday at 8pm. Tune in for an hour of fuzz-crunching storage rock ‘n’ roll and make amends for all reveals on the From The Storage Mixcloud playlist.
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