Favorite Albums of 2012 - Number 4

For me, a great album is made up of great songs, and great songs are made up of great songwriting. OK, I guess that is fairly obvious, but good song-writing is hard to find. There are plenty of records that are full of just uninteresting song-writing. For example, last night I saw Tegan & Sara open for The Killers. Tegan & Sara seemed like very nice people who I am sure would be pleasant to share a cup of coffee with, and their songs were relatively pleasant, but the quality of writing left me wanting. I underdtand they are infinitely more successful than I could ever hope let alone expect to be. But I felt the songs were too strangely structured. They ended in odd places and in odd ways. They had some really cool moments but the songs never really seemed to feel fully formed. It's one thing to explore beyond verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-verse-chorus but T&S aren't Yes.

Brendan Benson - What Kind Of World

That is an odd way to get to my number 4 favorite album of the year: Brendan Benson's What Kind Of World. The connection leading to this record is that Brendan is an AMAZING songwriter. A great pop songwriter. Catchy, melodic, lyrically clever, constantly have my head bobbing up and down. He as good as it gets.

If you listen pop radio, you have probably heard him, though it was not anything on this album or any of his previous solo records. He has had exposure the last few years as part of The Raconteurs with Jack White. In fact, Brendan is doing most of the singing on those records, not Jack White. This particular record came out the same day as Jack's record Blunderbuss. I wrote about that earlier in the year and I stand by my belief that Brendan's record is superior in every regard. Jack's record is too fussy, too all over the place. WKOW is straight-forward power pop, but without any sameness. That's a tough balancing act: to make a record that flows effortlessly but is not locked into the same groove. And THAT is a tribute to Brendan's great songwriting ability.

Here's "Keep Me" which is not even the best song on the record.

Up next: my favorite band ever continues to make great records.