Brandon Patton
"Should Confusion" CD
Merlin
Pool Music
Genres: indie pop, singer / songwriter,
pop/rock
Oct 25 - 31 2004 |
Brandon Patton's latest solo album, Should Confusion,
starts off with the very Pedro The Lion-esque "Counting
the Paces," but the whole disc comes off more like Brendan
Benson's pop masterpiece Lapalco than anything David
Bazan ever recorded. That is, of course, misleading -
this disc is miles away from the blatant pop-hook-entourage Lapalco
was; instead, it mimics Benson's young, carefree spirit - Patton
loves making music, and Should Confusion captures that
enthusiasm perfectly. These songs are well-written - with
melodies galore - and the fun Patton had recording them comes
through well in the recordings.
"What's The Worst that Could Happen?" is our first
glimpse into what Brandon is truly capable of. An
infectious rocker with an unparalleled chorus, it has the type of
listenability that few songwriters ever come up with. The complex
simplicity of "Thirty-One Hundred Miles," with its inclusion
of saxophones, samples, and more, makes for a strong, engaging pop
song. Interestingly, the album's last three songs are all folky
pop tunes; the shimmering beauty of "The Good Life" and the
lushly pristine pop of "Someday When We're Old" are sure
album highlights.
This album, if given its due publicity, could have been much more
successful than it was. It has the type of optimistic pop feel
we've heard before on Badly Drawn Boy's Hour of
Bewilderbeast and the earlier-mentioned Brendan Benson
disc. Though these songs may not be as consistently great as Gough
and Benson's were, they are still well worth the price of
admission.
87%
Matt Shimmer [Vitals:
9 tracks, distributed by CD
Baby, released 2002] |
