Brett Dennen. Hmmm...what can I say about Brett Dennen that hasn't been said? Not a lot, really. There are the obvious comparisons between him and my boy John which I'm sure will be even more prevalent since Mayer's boy Alagia placed his prints all over Hope for the Hopeless but I see the two as wholly and completely opposites. There will never be a time when I will envision Dennen in a blues trio or rockin' classic SRV cuts with ferocious intensity. Nope, just ain't happenin'.
Now don't get me wrong, I like Brett Dennen. I've mentioned him here before and So Much More made the contender list for '06 and as a person, I think he's interesting and top notch. His passion for projects that make a difference in the lives of others, promote peace, unity and social change gives me the warm fuzzies like you've no idea and I love that he's such a throwback artist but I pretty much just like him an awful, awful lot and that's the extent of it. I mean, while I enjoy his company quite a bit more than most, if I had to make a short list of people to invite to an end of the road soirée to celebrate my passing, I'm guessing he might not make the cut.
So here's another new release that is actually in stores now that I really like a lot but don't love just quite yet. There are tracks that I can already see myself putting on mix discs for friends and adding to theme compilations but for me, this just missed the mark a little. Maybe Alagia's handiwork is wearing on me or maybe I need to just put it away until I'm in the right mindframe to appreciate it. Either way, check it out and decide for yourself. Start with these...
Brett Dennen - "Wrong About Me"
Brett Dennen - "When She's Gone"
Brett Dennen - "Who Do You Think You Are?"
Brett Dennen - "Follow Your Heart"
My favorite on the album was actually the song I posted last week that was featured on Grey's Anatomy and for anyone who missed it, here it is again...
Brett Dennen - "Ain't Gonna Lose You"
You can put a stick in my spokes
I can be the butt of your jokes
I can be the laughing stock, I can be your hoax
But I ain't gonna lose you
They can come and tear my house down
They can run me out of town
They can tie me up, call me a clown
But I ain’t gonna lose you
I can’t stand
The thought of another man
They can make me turn my back on my friends
Send me away to up in San Quentin
Put me in the hole, a thousand times again
But I ain’t gonna lose you
Throw me in a hurricane
Tell the whole world I’ve gone insane
Run an electric shock to my brain
But I ain’t gonna lose you
I can’t stand
The thought of another man
I’ll sing it from my roof top
I’ll sing it from the bus stop
I’ll sing it on the street drunk to a cop
But I ain’t gonna lose you
Having said all that, I wanna share the review I read of the record that I liked the most from All Music's Steve Leggett:
A deliberately careful songwriter with an at times Dylanesque flair for unlikely rhymes (he matches "spokes" with "hoax," for instance, and mostly gets away with it), a certain Nick Drake-like fragility (due in large part to his voice, which is pitched high and sounds at times eerily like Billie Holiday), and a subtle African pop feel (he has Femi Kuti singing backing vocals on one of the songs here), Brett Dennen is certainly singular, and at his best, he catches a breezy, mellow groove that allows his thoughtful songs to truly shine. If there's a downside, it's that they all shine in almost exactly the same way, and over the course of an album, can start to feel like one big mellow song sung over and over again without a whole lot of variation. But when these songs work, they really work, and pieces like "Heaven," even though Dennen goes on about things like "the cloth of conviction," are strikingly effective. Other standouts on Hope for the Hopeless, his third album, include the Kuti track, "Make You Crazy" (which features Dennen's most perfectly soulful and spirited vocal yet), the easily likable "World Keeps Turning," the impressive "Ain't Gonna Lose You" (where the spokes/hoax rhyme dwells), and the innocently positive and hopeful "Follow Your Heart," even though it sounds maybe too much like a second rewrite of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" at times. Nothing here is less than pleasant, but the lyrics do get a little on the overwrought and ornate side in songs like "So Far from Me," where crows ravage a field of wheat while scarecrows know their own defeat etc., and if Dylan can get away with stuff like that because he's, well, Dylan, Dennen makes it all sound just a little too delicate and labored. Still, Hope for the Hopeless works more than it doesn't, and when it really clicks here, which is often enough, Dennen shows himself to be a unique voice and talent.
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