This album would easily make it into any top 5 list I compiled of my favourite albums of all time. I can't think of many other albums that reward such repeated listening.
Brendan Benson is a singer-songwriter from Detroit and best mate of Jack White from the White Stripes. Not something to put off people who don't like the White Stripes though - they don't sound alike. Brendan Benson is much more melodic and a typical Brendan Benson song is tuneful, immediate, catchy, and sweet - but not too sweet.
Nowhere on Lapalco is this better represented than track 2 - a wistful but instantly catchy and optimistic tune called Metarie. It starts with Benson duetting with a distant female voice: 'Met a girl - introduced myself, i wanted to go with her and no-one else' to which she replies that he needs a bath, his clothes are wrong and he's not her type, 'we wouldn't get along'. The song soars towards the end with layers of rising harmonies and lush, but subtle production. At the end of the album, the song is refrained, but this time as a more delicate, stripped down version.
Its a cheerily positive and happy album, great to listen to on the way to work. He's writing about things that make him happy, even if the outcomes don't always turn out quite the way he'd planned. The only risk with listening to it on public transport is that after the second or third listens, you may well find yourself whistling or singing along to the harmonies and inviting melodies, oblivious to those around you.
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