Brendan Benson has settled into his adopted hometown of Nashville, Tennessee in recent years, founding his very own record label and publishing company, Readymade Music, while sticking close to home for an analog-recorded LP put to tape in Music City’s retro Welcome to 1979 studio. For his forthcoming 5th album, What Kind of World, Benson embraced a collaborative spirit, recruiting quite a few names that should sound familiar to TwentyFourBit readers, namely the Posies/Big Star’s Ken Stringfellow and Jon Auer, Sam Farrar of Phantom Planet, regular collaborator Ashley Monroe, and Ryan Adams’ Cardinals drummer Brad Pemberton.
As we’ve heard on Benson’s work with the Raconteurs, the songwriting craftsmanship he’s honed over the years truly shines in midrange-flattering analog formats, and our first taste of What Kind of World is no different. What brings “Bad For Me” truly home, however, is its seamless melding of intimate, near-confessional material with a more ambitious 1970s pop sensibility that recalls Elton John in his heyday a bit. Hear this über-promising cut and download a free MP3 by clicking the downward arrow below: