The Alternative To Love Norristown PA

The Alternative To Love

Brendan Benson

V2 Records, 2005

REVIEW BY: Jason Warburg

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 11/02/2005

Brendan Benson doesn't do anything the simple way.

That much is clear when you consider the career of a guy whoseprevious two albums are both regarded as virtual lost classics, whowas dropped by a major label (Virgin) only to be resigned eightyears later, and whose intensely realized studio perfectionismdoesn't really allow for the concept of deadlines.

Benson is a retrophile pop alchemist of the first order, themusical bastard son of Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Stevie Wonderand every great melodic Brit-rock band of the past forty years. Heis also a studio experimentalist supreme, a self-producing virtualone-man band who calls for help only when he absolutely needs it,and decorates each song with layer upon layer of intriguing sonicstrata, adding bells or percussion or warm synth textures to hiscore guitar crunch.

Whether or not he is actually physically related to LennyKravitz, I will leave to others to determine. What he is, on The Alternative To Love, is a meticulous craftsman workingin the medium of late '60s-early '70s classic rock.