I picked up The Alternative To Love yesterday. I have to say, when I heard samples from the album my opinion was a little divided. Jack White's glowing opinion of it pushed me over the edge.

Now....I can sort of see why Jack White says he's a good songwriter. His music sounds pretty organic -- which is essential for his genre of music. But it also sounds like he's trying way too hard. Take the title track 'The alternative to love'. The song is good. Then at the end, for no reason, he starts repeating 'Forever in search of..the alternative to love' for two minutes. This wears out the song's welcome completely and pulls my hand toward the 'skip' button.

Though, I can see how his style compliment's Jack White's, so maybe their collaberative album will be really good.

Other opinions?

No opinions whatsoever, Bob, and although I enjoy all your posts and don't want to tickle your rhubarb, I never hit fast forward. I'm either stupid.....or.....ignorant, I guess. I tried to get BB's album, but the closest store didn't have it, so I'll have to travel a little further on up the road, unless you're tickling something of mine with your comments.

Alternative to Love is Brendan's third solo record, and probably his third-best. I recommend 2002's Lapalco and then his debut, 1996's One Mississippi. This doesn't include his side band with Chris Plum, Mood Elevator, which has two albums.

The new one is very good, in my estimation, but not as good as the first two. If you don't like the repetitiveness of "Alternative to Love", you might not dig some of the more power poppy tracks on those first two albums. I think the "trying too hard" comment might stem from the fact, after working on the followup to the first record for 6 years, he only had two to make this one.

But if you DO like anything by Brendan, I would certainly direct you towards his former collaborator, the brilliant Jason Falkner. Anything by Jason is top notch and he appears on parts of Brendan's first album.

For the record, it's REALLY unfortunate that Brendan is getting a rep as a Jack White sideman. Brendan had a record deal when White was still unknown (1994) and has more in common with power poppers (he toured in 2004 with the Waxwings) than he does with his buddy Jack.

I think you misunderstood...I don't skip the entire song. Just, at the end of the track Alternative to Love, he starts repeating the same line over and over with the same notes, and keeps doing so even after he stops playing instruments. I only want to skip that part at the end. I hardly ever use the skip button. In fact, I'm thinking of scrawling the phrase 'O-bla-di' on it, becuase that's basically all the button is used for.

(And I didn't start actively looking for indie music till 2003, and not seriously till February. I own 22 2004 albums and 18 2005 albums. So I haven't heard of most of these indie people I'm suddenly discovering)

Gotcha.

I commend your quest for new music, in new genres. I think, if you like Alternative to Love at all, you'd probably like both of Brendan's previous records and any of the albums by Jason Falkner (who played in Jellyfish and tours as guitarist for Air). I don't think any of those albums have a vocal coda like the one in "Alternative to Love" that will send you ob-la-di-ing...

I bought "Alternative to Love" a few days ago and I drove around to a heck of a lot of stores to find it. And I'll admit, one of the only reasons I got it is because of the collaboration with Jack White. I'm a huge Jack White fan and anybody he's working with must be good. And I am pretty impressed with ATL. It's good for summer driving with the windows down. At least that's the sort of feel I got.

If you like ATL, you'll probably like the earlier stuff.

I think it's great that White Stripes fans are getting into Brendan, whose music is (stylistically) very different. ATL is a great summertime record, for sure.

Welcome to the Forum, S_S_I!

I'm quite pleased to own the new album and haven't stopped listening to it since it was released.

Like Brendan Benson's other work, there are a couple of throwaway tracks worthy of a fans-only B-side compilation. However, there are some standout tracks on this one.

I love "The Alternative to Love," "Between Us," and "Them and Me." I could live without "Get it Together" and "Feel Like Myself."

The guy isn't exactly a revolutionary when it comes to lyrics, though....