“So looked over, so underrated/Every move proves to be ill-fated,” Brendan Benson sang on 2012’s “What Kind of World,” concisely summing up his well-worn sad-sack shtick. By contrast, the singer-songwriter’s seventh solo effort, Dear Life, is the most buoyant and self-assured album he’s released since his 1996 debut, One Mississippi. It’s the ostensible result of having spent the last decade getting sober, starting a family, and finally, as one-half of the Raconteurs, receiving the mainstream recognition that a tunesmith of his caliber surely deserves.
The new album’s breezy positivity was telegraphed by the singles “Good to Be Alive” and “Richest Man.” “I’ve got two beautiful babies/And one hell of a good-looking wife/Got twice the love and half the money/And I feel like the richest man alive,” Benson sings on the latter, the facile dorkiness of his lyrics balanced by the unflinching emotional authenticity of the sentiment. And while no one would mistake the lyrics on “Richest Man” for poetry, they ring profound and true in light of years’ worth of songs about feeling lost and unfulfilled with single life. With its wall of ringing guitars, cheery brass, and euphoric harmonies, “Richest Man” is the most overtly feel-good song Benson has ever made.
If only that good feeling lingered longer, as Dear Life, Benson’s first solo album in seven years, is a mere half-hour long. And it’s a shame some of those precious minutes are wasted on “I Can If You Want Me To” and “I’m In Love”: With their weird vocal effects, overblown guitar work, and uncomfortably forward femdom fantasizing, both tracks sound as though they were tossed off after listening to Raconteurs bandmate Jack White’s divisive Boarding House Reach. They’re also tonally incongruent on an album that thrives within Benson’s wheelhouse of classic power pop like “Dear Life,” which is pure ’70s-AM radio bliss, and the breezy “Baby’s Eyes.”
Benson’s skill for creating layers of ear candy using just vocal tracks—as in the stuttered lines in “Richest Man” and the wordless mumbling that runs throughout “I Quit”—ensures that no melodic hook goes unexplored, rewarding repeated listens. Despite playing nearly every note on the album himself, the musician maintains a stylistic diversity, most evident on the synthy “Good to Be Alive,” whose glitchy electronic flourishes give the track a surprisingly spry modern flair that’s entirely unique in Benson’s catalog. The most unorthodox song on the album is “Half a Boy (Half a Man),” which marries pounding Who-style guitars and synth patterns with rootsy mandolin and backwoods harmonies. The song underscores Benson’s ability to mine from well-worn rock influences without simply aping them.
Ultimately, Benson’s impeccable melodic instincts justify Dear Life’s largely featherweight tone. On the penultimate “I Quit,” a radiant, strummy pop gem, he surveys the troubles of his past and concludes that they seem to be well behind him: “I feel fine, it’s a fine day/And I’ve got green lights all the way.” It’s not the most articulate line ever written, but it serves as a reminder that, sometimes, the most important purpose a pop song can serve is just making you feel good.
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