BRENDAN BENSON
HEAR NEW TRACK ‘RICHEST MAN’ HERE AND ON SOUNDCLOUD
FROM UPCOMING ALBUM DEAR LIFE
‘DEAR LIFE’ ARRIVES VIA THIRD MAN RECORDS ON 24 APRIL 2020
Brendan Benson is excited to share ‘Richest Man’, the newest single from his first solo LP in almost seven years, ‘Dear Life’ (Third Man Records, 24 April). ‘Richest Man’ debuted via Billboard, who called the track “a buoyant and brassy power pop love song” Hear the track, and stay tuned for the upcoming music video.
“I never thought I would write a song about domesticity!” Benson says of the track. “When I wrote the words, I thought I would eventually change them to something a little less literal and “family man”, but in the end, I decided I liked the lyrics, for those two reasons.”
Benson’s seventh solo album and first full-length release via Third Man, ‘Dear Life’ was heralded by the rhapsodic first single “Good To Be Alive,” streaming now via its official video and on all DSPs. Nashville Scene noted that “the tune blurs boundaries between power pop and early synth-pop, with Benson’s malleable voice… serving as the connecting thread,” while BrooklynVegan praised its “’70s singer-songwriter verses and synthpop-y choruses.” American Songwriter lauded the album as a whole, calling it “a collection of electrified and harmoniously erratic arrangements only Benson could concoct with 11 songs encapsulating his dynamic songwriting, bound by tight hooks and digitized beats.”
Benson has postponed his run of previously-announced headline U.S. tour dates. Rescheduled dates will be announced soon. For updates and information, please visit www.brendanbenson.com. Benson has been live-streaming a song from his Instagram every day as part of his “Boy In A Bubble” series — tune in at 10.20PM BST every day HERE.
Benson finds himself in an enviable spot as he enters the third decade of a remarkably creative, consistently idiosyncratic career – an accomplished frontman, musician, songwriter, producer, band member, husband, and dad. ‘Dear Life’ marks this consummate polymath’s most inventive and upbeat work thus far, an 11-track song cycle about life, love, family, fatherhood, and the pure joy of making music.
Produced and almost entirely performed by Benson at his own Readymade Studio in Nashville, the album sees the Michigan-born, Nashville-based artist – and co-founder, with Jack White, of The Raconteurs – revelling in a more modernist approach than ever before, fueled by a heady brew of cannabis, hip-hop, and a newly discovered interest in software drum programming.
The result is an untapped playfulness that elevates expertly crafted songs like the future funk-fueled opener, “I Can If You Want Me To,” and the ecstatic “Richest Man Alive” with voluble arrangements, elastic grooves, and incandescent power. Imbued with revitalized ambition and confidence, ‘Dear Life’ is Brendan Benson at his very best. “There’s something about this record,” Benson says. “A friend of mine called it ‘life-affirming.’ I thought it was a joke at first but then realized, well, it’s about life and death for sure. I don’t know if that’s positive or optimistic or whatever, but that’s what’s going on with me.
Beginning with 1996’s now-classic debut, ONE MISSISSIPPI – recently reissued by Third Man in its first-ever vinyl pressing and available now – and its masterful 2002 follow-up, ‘Lapalco’, the Michigan-born, Nashville-based Benson has always infused classic craftsmanship with contemporary invention.
Along with his own critically acclaimed canon, Benson is of course co-founder – with Jack White, Jack Lawrence, and Patrick Keeler – of The Raconteurs. The band first convened in 2006, winning worldwide acclaim, GRAMMY® Award nominations, and a chart-topping smash single in “Steady As She Goes,” with their now-classic debut album, ‘Broken Boy Soldiers’. The Raconteurs returned two short years later with 2008’s ‘Consolers of The Lonely’.
Like its predecessor, the LP proved a popular and critical phenomenon, earning the GRAMMY® Award for “Best Engineered Non-Classical Album” as well as a nomination as “Best Rock Album.” After more than a decade, The Raconteurs finally returned to action in 2019 with their critically acclaimed, chart-topping third LP, ‘Help Us Stranger’, highlighted in part by songs Benson had initially considered for his own LP, “Only Child” and “Somedays (I Don’t Feel Like Trying).”
The Raconteurs’ epic 2019 world tour proved equally successful, playing to ecstatic sold-out houses from Nashville to New Zealand and all points in-between. As if all that weren’t enough, Benson is an in-demand producer (Robyn Hitchcock, Young The Giant, Trapper Schoepp, The Greenhornes) and collaborative songwriter, with a CV that includes partnerships with Jake Bugg, Iain Archer (Snow Patrol), and The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard, among others.
BRENDAN BENSON
DEAR LIFE
(Third Man Records)
Release Date: Friday 24 April 2020
TRACKLISTING:
I Can If You Want Me To
Good To Be Alive
Half A Boy (And Half A Man)
Richest Man Alive
Dear Life
Baby’s Eyes
Freak Out
Evil Eyes
I’m In Love
I Quit
Who’s Gonna Love You
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