Track Listing

1. Tiny Spark
2. Metarie
3. Folk Singer
4. Life in the D
5. Good To Me
6. You're Quiet
7. What
8. Eventually
9. I'm Easy
10. Pleasure Seeker
11. Just Like Me
12. Jet Lag

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3047 in Music
• Released on: 2006-07-01
• Number of discs: 1

Amazon.co.uk Review
He might be best known for receiving the ferverent patronage of his fellow Detroit natives the White Stripes, but the songs on Brendan Benson’s second album display little of Jack and Meg’s raggedy-assed garage roar. Rather, Lapalco pricks memories of fine power-pop groups from years past. Drawing on the somersaulting melodies of Fountains of Wayne and Teenage Fanclub, Benson and his longtime musical colleague Jason Faulkner write ornate, technicolour-bright songs that revel in their own rose-tinted slackerdom.

On the misleadingly titled "Folk Singer", feedback-strewn power-pop melodies eddy past like dandelion seeds on the wind, while Benson sings self-consciously geeksome lyrics that directly reference his idols: "She says ‘Stop pretending/ You’re not John Lennon’". Sure enough, on "Tiny Spark", squelchy organs herald a classic-sounding 1960s riff that might as well have just stepped out of a time capsule. But Benson injects enough character and humour into his songs to avoid a sticky, stagnant fate. "Met a girl/ Introduced myself/ Asked her to go with me/ And no-one else" he sings, earnestly, on "Metarie". "You need a bath/ Your clothes are wrong," comes the withering reply, "You’re not my type/ Know we wouldn’t get along". With the gall to dump himself on his own record, how could this self-confessed loser fail to pull a winner out of the bag? --Louis Pattison

CD Description
Second LP from Detroit power popper Brendan Benson, five years after the release of his debut album 'One Mississippi' and four years after being droppped by Virgin records comes the follow up. Recorded at Benson's 8-track home studio (where he has also worked with Jack White of The White Stripes) 'Lapalco' includes the singles 'Folk Singer', 'Metarie', 'Tiny Spark' and 'Good To Me'.

Customer Reviews

A Modern Masterpiece
The best album of the last 5 years.

I've not repeatedly enjoyed or revisted an album as much as this since The Bends by Radiohead. Every song sparkles with loveliness and immaculate production. Metarie is simply beautiful, and produced in such a way that the slower reprise of it at the end of the album is even more surprising in that it manages to be every bit as good as the earlier version.

Melodic, comforting, uplifting, calming, energising - this is going to set an almost unreachable standard for the forthcoming follow-up to meet. If my iPod was wiped, this would be one of the first albums that I'd put back on it.

Brendan Benson Rocks (and Rolls)!!
I had to post this review after reading the review by thisisadrian which I completely disagree with, I absolutely love Indie music and somehow I'd never heard of BB until my girlfriend turned me on to him and I seriously cannot stop listening to all 3 of his albums which are all brilliant in different ways and he's nothing like David Gray or Coldplay he has far more cred than that! I think the previous reviewer may regret writing his nonsense since BB is now in a band with Jack White (Raconteurs), I've had the pleasure of seeing them live in Glasgow and they are going to be MASSIVE!!!

Mistreated indie genius makes dazzling bitchy comeback
Brendan Benson: romantic, loser, casualty of the record industry and once again an indie darling shows his mettle and resolve on this wonderful album. A victim of the fickleness of his record label, Benson was dropped after the release of his first album. This decidedly lo-fi and late second effort is a testament to the resolve of an artist to make the songs he wants, and a beautiful one at that. Quite simply, Benson is one of the best songwriters around right now, and he manages to make his apparently rather pathetic and bitter existence into some of the best-crafted songs of the last 10 years. The arrangements are magnificent, simple-sounding but deceptively intricate, the lyrics show an astonishing ingenuity and bitterness that, despite their relatively quiet tones, compel you to listen. Especially check out 'Tiny Spark', 'Folk Singer', 'Good To Me', 'What' and 'Jetlag' . . . in fact, screw it, the whole album's made up of stand-out tracks. A resounding victory for the underdog.