Revolution in the Head

Took a jog this evening and decided to give a second chance to an album I previously had written off. The Alternative To Love was one of my most anticipated releases in 2005. His previous album, Lapalco was one of those that found its way into the player and basically took up residence for months. A homespun effort that was recorded and produced almost singlehandedly by Benson (Jason Faulkner receives a co-producer’s credit), Lapalco remains one of power pop’s finest of recent years.

But for some reason, The Alternative To Love failed to stick to the ribs. Where Lapalco felt both urgent and economical, Alternative came across as overthought and bloated. Too clever by the half, you might say. It feels like an opportunity lost. (Sidenote: At one point I considered selling the album, but She’s Whose Wishes I Must Respect– to paraphrase The Boss– objected. She’s usually right and has a pretty good track record for preventing me from foolish acts.)

Before I go much further, first a confession: the reason this album leapt from the shelves and begged to soundtrack my run is that one of it’s better tracks, “What I’m Looking For” is currently featured in an Apple iPod Touch commercial. “What I’m Looking For”, heard below, is a fantastic song with a great hook and it sounds, quite frankly, terrific in the commercial. It has a nuance for texture and arrangement that calls to mind Emitt Rhodes, a criminally overlooked artist from the 60’s and 70’s who also excelled in the one-man band/knob twiddler vein. (Note: Rhodes will certainly be the subject of his own post in the near future.)

Alternative starts like a house on fire, with the blazing, Cars-esque “Spit It Out”. “Cold Hands/Warm Heart” and “Feel Like Myself” follow and sound suddenly revelatory to these ears. “The Pledge” pays obvious and convincing homage to Phil Spector. Were my initial impressions too harsh? Would this album reinvent itself, three years after the fact?

Not quite. Things head south right around the time my knee starts to hurt (dammit). I start reaching for the skip button and remembering why this album failed to capitivate me. Alternative starts to wear out its welcome. Not until the penultimate track, the aforementioned Apple shil-du jour, do things pick back up. That song now stands as some sort of testiment to what could and should have been.

It seems Benson’s widescreen ambitions here may have got the best of him. The middle third of the album feels over-produced and under-written. Gone are the images of a Lapalco-era Benson; of a guy struggling to get the songs down on his eight-track as fast as his brain keeps pouring them out. The images are replaced by the vision of Benson sitting at the mixing desk, laboring over one unecessary decision after another. (Surprisingly, a glance at the liner notes reveals that the album is co-mixed by Tchad Blake, an engineer whose work on various Crowded House and Neil Finn efforts I greatly admire.)

I start to feel nostalgic for “Metarie”, perhaps my favorite track from Lapalco. “Metarie”, the album’s second cut, comes to us in a presumably demo-like form, with all of its warts and flaws left in for the taking. Did Benson attempt a fuller, more finely tuned version of this song, but failed to better capture its essence? (Actually, the answer is yes; I’ve heard two non-album versions, both more fleshed out, but ultimately lacking in comparison.) This may be an extreme example of why I prefer Lapalco to The Alternative To Love, but it illustrates my point: sometimes the artist just needs to trust his gut and resist the urge to embellish. Get it down and move on.

Don’t get me wrong: I certainly enjoy my fair share of carefully, ambitiously produced pop albums (afterall no one with Jellyfish in his/her collection can pretend otherwise). It’s just that in Benson’s case, the clothes don’t really seem to fit.

I’m curious where Benson might head with his next album. My suggestion? Take a nod from his fellow Raconteur, fly across the pond, book some time at Toe Rag Studios and just bash it out.

Brendan Benson, Lapalco (Startime International, 2002) & The Alternative To Love (V2/Startime International, 2005)

Metarie {download mp3}

What I’m Looking For {download mp3}

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 12th, 2008 at 9:41 pm and is filed under 00's. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.