Search - Brendan Benson :: The Alternative to Love

Instant winner!

D. Parle | Ireland | 04/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This disc came up in the best of 2006. Certainly it is in my top five. Always wanted to have a listen but had no access to the net. This album features a smooth, seamless and loveable singer songwriter in the peak of his talents. it really is a four and a half star CD and will be worn paper thin before too long!"

An Alternative to Tedium

Becca | 07/07/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Brendan Benson's "Alternative to Love" can simply be summed up as brilliant. I am, admittedly, fairly new to Benson's work, but had a surprisingly lovely introduction to it the first time that I listened to The Raconteur's "Consolers of the Lonely." As a recently converted member of the International Church for the Reverence of the White Stripes, but nevertheless, hopelessly devoted to the great Jack White, I had bought COL looking to satisfy my ever-growing thirst for more White material. However, I emerged from the experience more intrigued by the other leading man, Benson, than solidified in my love for Jack White. Benson's music has been called "power pop" and has most often been compared to that of the Beatles. The mood of Benson's music is most certainly Beatlesesque, however his melodies soar higher and what they lack in a certain tonal edge that the Beatles' music encompassed, they make up for in biting lyrical wit. That is not to say that Bensons' music is not catchy; it certainly is, but it also has a wistfulness to it. For it is not simply Benson's infectious melodies that make his music pleasing and lasting, but more so, it is his ability to deliver a stinging punch of a wide number of multifarious emotions while maintaining a fairly mellow musical facade that makes it so uniquely powerful, and even haunting. A brilliant bard whose voice seems to have been stifled by bigger names in the industry that have reached their ascension more quickly (and perhaps more cheaply) Benson truly is an unsung hero (no pun intended). The certain sense of longing that is intertwined in the threads of his melodies make the songs in which they are found bittersweet in nature, yet that much more heartbreakingly passionate, and (for that matter) that much more endearing. Bravo, Mr. Benson."