Jack White already revealed the Dead Weather’s Horehound earlier this summer, so this week marks the perfect time for the other Raconteur, Brendan Benson, to showcase his newest album My Old, Familiar Friend, Benson’s fourth solo LP but first since linking up with White. Familiar Friend finds Benson embracing his AM-gold roots with power pop songs that echo Wings and ELO. Rolling Stone’s Rob Sheffield gave Familiar Friend three and a half stars, adding that the Moody Blues doppelganger “Feel Like Taking You Home” is among the LP’s best tracks.
Former Breaking artist Jack Penate unleashes his second set Everything Is New this week, and as advertised, everything is new this time around for the 24-year-old soul-singing Brit rocker. A more mature album finds Penate still penning uptempo love songs, however this time the genres jump from classic soul to Afropop to Tropicalia with a rock undercurrent. Jody Rosen gave Everything Is New a three-star review, writing, “It’s an appealingly scruffy sound — an underdog album, a record you want to root for.”
Loudon Wainwright III’s High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project, a double-disc collection of covers and originals dedicated to 1920s country singer Charlie Poole, also hits shelves this week. “It also unifies the two sides of Loudon Wainwright: sentimental wiseass folkie and tragicomic character actor,” Will Hermes writes in his three-and-a-half star review of Wainwright’s project. Among the highlights are “Goodbye Booze” and “Took My Gal Out Walkin’.”
Finally, if you’re unfamiliar with the work of Richard Thompson, an excellent new compilation titled Walking on a Wire: 1968-2009 is a perfect entry point for a man many refer to as the Greatest Living Rock Guitarist. This latest bo...
Article Source: Rolling Stone : Rock and Roll Daily