by Melissa A. Collett
Photography Editor
Recording his first album for Virgin Records before ever performing in front of a live audience, 26-year-old Brendan Benson has received tremendous success on college radio charts.
Climbing from No. 104 to No. 62 on the Billboard charts, Benson’s debut album, “One Mississippi,” covers a wide arrangement of songs from Material Issue-type ballads to an Oasis-like sound using a winey voice and punk backgrounds.
The band consists of Benson on vocals and guitar, Woody Saunders on drums and background vocals and Michael Andrews on bass and background vocals.
Before forming his current band, which doesn’t have a name, Benson played with different bands in his high school and even moved to Los Angeles at one point, returning back to Louisiana soon after.
It was back home that Benson wrote all of the songs on his album while locked in his bedroom with his acoustic guitar using rhyming poetics to tell stories about love, sadness and growing up in the Louisiana town of Harvey.
Each of the 13 songs take the listener somewhere through a period in his life.
Benson grew up in Louisiana listening to rock albums from the ’60s and ’70s, which explains the influence of the Beatles-esque sound throughout his album. He also took an interest in punk music through his adolescent years.
Whatever his influences, there is more in the music than classic rock. Not only do some tunes reminiscence back to the folk era, songs like “Just Me Purely,” and “Emma J” display an apparent Spanish influence. This could come from an absorption Benson had with a Spanish dancer, according to a statement written by friend Andrew Kemp, who said Benson is always stumbling upon lyrics which are “channeled from the gods of caffeine and anxiety.”
The rhythms are similar, especially in the first three songs of the album, “Tea,” “Bird’s Eye View,” and “Sittin’ Pretty.”
Looking angelic in pictures, his voice is raspy in one song and whining in others. He croons songs about his life and his feelings while entertaining his listeners with an enjoyable, easy listening sound that is alternative without all of the banging of most bands.
The album is reminiscent of the Weezer and Green Day sound of the early 90s that drove grunge to the alternative punk scene after the death of Kurt Cobain.
Benson toured the east coast in September hitting New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.
Despite the fact that Benson is just the rookie in the alternative music world, “One Mississippi” is a good album offering variety in rhythm, style, tone and lyrics.
