Brendan Benson
My Old, Familiar Friend

If Brendan Benson wasn't so bloody talented, he might be in danger of being perennially pegged as 'that bloke from The Raconteurs'. Luckily, his brilliant solo catalogue prevents such lazy categorisation and the Michigan man has already proved his worth as a songwriter of the highest calibre. His second and third albums 'Lapalco' and 'The Alternative to Love' were particularly vivid demonstrations of his flair for melody, his aptitude at writing cliché-free lyrics, and his natural charisma as a performer.

'My Old, Familiar Friend' continues along the same lyrical thread as 2005's 'The Alternative to Love', or most of Benson's material, for that fact; many, but not all of his songs are centred around the problem-solving of relationships without resorting to saccharine platitudes. It means that songs like 'Gonowhere' and 'You Make a Fool Out of Me' have a slightly world-weary bent, but they're tempered by the head-swinging beats and harmonies of the superb 'Don't Wanna Talk', the tongue-in-cheek 'Misery' and the genuinely sweet love song 'Garbage Day' ("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").

The underlying twinkles, deft touches and clever little breaks in these songs could easily to attributed to skilled producer Gil Norton's hand, if we weren't already familiar with the quality of their author's previous form. There really isn't a single dud track here; if you're looking for hearty guitar pop with a good ol' fashioned rock 'n' roll kick, it really doesn't get better than this.

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