Dorks And Losers

I must admit that lis­ten­ing to Bren­dan Ben­son makes for one very upbeat time. It might seem that pop rock might be mak­ing a come­back. With John Mayer as its poster boy and with Gavin DeGraw on the rise, Ben­son might be join­ing the two. With the open­ing track “Spit It Out,” Ben­son — with his calm vocals and patient rhythms — sounds very much like DeGraw, albeit mellower.

But the sim­i­lar­i­ties sort of end there, as Ben­son heads towards sound­ing more like alter­na­tive con­tem­po­raries, The Shins (“Them And Me”) and Oasis (“What I’m Look­ing For”). His love for 60s rock is shown in “Get It Together” (The Byrds) and for 70s rock and metal in “Gold Into Straw,” which blends Ben­son with Elec­tronic Light Orches­tra and Blue Oys­ter Cult. Rock isn’t the only thing Ben­son wants to try. He exper­i­ments with a mini-disco fla­vor in “Alter­nate To Love” and also “Flesh And Bone,” much like Josh Rouse.

What Ben­son strives to do is remain con­sis­tent, which is very hard to do when Ben­son con­stantly moves around in his music. This mov­ing allows his music to be called pop, but not in the deroga­tory demeanor when said in the same breath as Brit­ney Spears or Hilary Duff (although I do like the Duff). Benson’s pop isn’t suited for MTV’s Total Request Live, but for the few remain­ing “lite rock” and alter­na­tive radio sta­tions left on the air. Too bad MTV doesn’t play Benson’s pop.

[photo via Uncut]

[photo via SFist]
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Track list:

1. Spit It Out
2. Cold Hands (Warm Heart)
3. Feel Like Myself
4. Alter­na­tive To Love
5. The Pledge
6. Them And Me
7. Biggest Fan
8. Flesh And Bone
9. Get It Together
10. Gold Into Straw
11. What I’m Look­ing For
12. Between Us

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