Pros Great vocals, sounds, arrangements, melodies...
Cons Synths are occasionally annoying, melodies occasionally repetitive...
The Bottom Line Pop can be more than just "popular" music. MTV and radio don't have to love something to make it special. Brendan Benson is proof of this.
Full Review
I’m not cool. I don’t attach myself to the latest musical trends. I don’t listen to the mainstream media machine. Instead, I much prefer to slowly stumble upon music and artists by way of personal suggestions and general curiosity. This is how I have come to know Detroit’s own Brendan Benson.
Benson’s absence from Detroit radio is perplexing. He makes truly lovely pop music, yet the pop stations don’t pick him up. Not even more the more indie edged 89X from Windsor (Ontario) plays him much (if at all). Apparently Michigan isn’t keen on Benson’s style of music. Open up your ears, dear state, and realize that this is a guy with real talent and some serious potential.
Since his name may not be familiar to a lot of people, I feel it necessary to elaborate a bit about Benson. Born in Michigan, he has more recently returned to the state after living in Berkeley, California for a few years. His rise to notoriety has meandered through a few record labels (both major and independent), but it has been only recently that the talented singer-songwriter has really made a huge splash. His style of hip, playful, and energetic pop is refreshing and honest. Even now after three albums Benson comes across as new and interesting. He is very much like a modern incarnation of Matthew Sweet. To put it simply, if you love semi-off-beat singer-songwriters like Sweet, Grant-Lee Phillips, and Mark Everett (aka “E” or the Eels) then you will like this guy too.
Benson made his debut in 1996 with One Mississippi. The album got good reviews but major label shakeups led to his dismissal. Regrouping and returning to an independent landscape and Detroit, Benson spent five years creating his follow-up Lapalco. Critics and fans hailed it as a masterpiece and it lived up to all the expectations from years of waiting a sophomore release from the singer-songwriter. However, it seems that Benson is getting better as time progresses. Surprisingly enough 2005’s The Alternative to Love is still better. That said, I still enjoy Lapalco a great deal.
Released in early 2002, Lapalco is a shimmering piece of delightful pop candy. Benson, in collaboration with friend and producer and guitarist Jason Falkner, has put together a truly special and instantly evocative album. Prior to hearing The Alternative to Love I was convinced of the fact that I’d never heard Benson. I was wrong. Single and album opener Tiny Spark is very familiar. When I say “very familiar,” I mean it was the soundtrack to a widely viewed “Leaving College” Saturn commercial. Despite that, I’d still never heard the whole songs before picking up this album. It’s so much more than a catchy melody—Benson oozes whimsical love and joy. Listeners would be hard pressed to find music any happier than Tiny Spark.
Lapalco is not a one-song album. It’s full of tiny treasures, each more darling than the last. Metarie is gorgeous, but Folk Singer ranks as a favorite. Upbeat and catchy, it is everything that pop music should be. Plus, of course, Benson has an appealing voice laced with boyish playfulness. The gentle brilliance continues through Life in the D and Good to Me. In particular the latter appeals to me in that Benson sings about those simple, inexpensive, unconventionally good things that he really likes. He loves his 1980 Volvo, cheap Supro amp, and of course his girlfriend (in that order).
The only real beefs I have with Lapalco crop up toward the middle of the album. While I still really do enjoy the songs, they do grow tiresome. I love the chorus of You’re Quiet (it is incredibly catchy), but the synthesizers are annoying. I wish Benson would go a bit easier on the faux instrument occasionally but for better or worse he does not. Every time I’m mildly put off by a song, the talented songwriter makes me forget with another agreeable ditty. What is a summery mid-tempo pop song. The melody is effortlessly charming and the guitars in particular are impeccable.
As Lapalco draws to a close, Benson loses a bit of steam. I’m Easy and Pleasure Seeker are album high points. However, it is I’m Easy that disappoints least. In fact that song is an album high point. Kinetic, thick, and full of energy the drum-and-guitar laden song suits Benson’s voice perfectly. I can’t say that I think it’s complex or profound, but it is great pop music. Unfortunately after this point, the quality drops off. This isn’t to say that the songs are horrible or even particularly bad. Instead neither Just Like Me nor Jet Lag do anything to cement them in my mind. I’m left dry and wanting to skip back to the first track.
While I can’t say that Lapalco is an amazingly flawless album, it does have some interesting moments sprinkled throughout. The world seems a little bit sweeter with Brendan Benson and Lapalco in it. Even better? He followed this one up with an even more outstanding work—The Alternative to Love. If you claim to be a fan of indie pop and have yet to check out the gentle beauty of Benson’s music then I suggest (highly) to do so, blemishes and all.
Rating: 4/5 stars
Track Listing:
01. Tiny Spark
02. Metarie
03. Folk Singer
04. Life in the D
05. Good to Me
06. You’re Quiet
07. What
08. Eventually
09. I’m Easy
10. Pleasure Seeker
11. Just Like Me
12. Jet Lag
_______________________________________
Related Review:
Muze: Copyright 1995 - 2008 Muze Inc. For personal non-commercial use only. All rights reserved.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2008 Shopping.com, Inc.