You Were Right, It Has Been A While

After doing so many posts counting down my favorite records of 2013 I decided to take a little time off from writing. Well, that is not quite true. It was not an active or conscious decision. I simply did not feel like it. These things happen. Let us move on.

One of the records that came late in the year was You Were Right by Brendan Benson. He is a great songwriter whose records usually find their way onto my year-end list. Last year's What In The World did rightly make my list. This one did not, but that doe snot mean it is not a great record. I believe its failure to arrive on my list is more indicative of my harder-edged leanings this year than anything else.

You Were Right is technically less a proper album than a collection of singles he released through the year. Under that paradigm you would expect the record to sound disjointed but You Were Right does not. Instead it is concessive, strong, and while not quite as outstanding as What In The World it is still very very good.

Most folks who have heard of Benson know of him from The Raconteurs with Jack White, but Benson is one of the best power-poppers around. So that means his songs are catchy, well-written and especially clever. For this record he enlists the help of The Posies' Jon Auer and Ken Stringfellow.

But like any good power pop record it is the songs that speak loudest. The vibe of the songs is especially 70s-esque, especially the slinky "Diamond." It is founded along a strumming acoustic guitar before a twitchy electric guitar line slides in guiding the tune through. "Long Term Goal" has a kind of full-bottomed pop vibe with nice reverb-y guitar chords.  "I Don't Want To See You Anymore" uses horns and chiming guitars to set up the melancholy of the song. These are just examples. I will not go into a song by song analysis. I am not good at that. I am feeling that it is regrettable I could not find a place for this record on the list. But there are only ten spots and what can you do? This is a great, mellower offering from one of the best songwriters nobody has heard of.

Here's "Diamond."

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.