News

Brendan Benson shares new track from his upcoming album ‘Dear Life’

• 7th Apr 2020

Brendan Benson is excited to share ‘Richest Man’, the newest single from his first solo LP in almost seven years, ‘Dear Life’ (Third Man Records, 24 April). ‘Richest Man’ debuted via Billboard, who called the track “a buoyant and brassy power pop love song” Hear the track, and stay tuned for the upcoming music video.  

“I never thought I would write a song about domesticity!” Benson says of the track. “When I wrote the words, I thought I would eventually change them to something a little less literal and “family man”, but in the end, I decided I liked the lyrics, for those two reasons.”

Benson’s seventh solo album and first full-length release via Third Man, ‘Dear Life’ was heralded by the rhapsodic first single “Good To Be Alive,” streaming now via its official video and on all DSPs. Nashville Scene noted that “the tune blurs boundaries between power pop and early synth-pop, with Benson’s malleable voice… serving as the connecting thread,” while BrooklynVegan praised its “’70s singer-songwriter verses and synthpop-y choruses.” American Songwriter lauded the album as a whole, calling it “a collection of electrified and harmoniously erratic arrangements only Benson could concoct with 11 songs encapsulating his dynamic songwriting, bound by tight hooks and digitized beats.”

Benson has postponed his run of previously-announced headline U.S. tour dates. Rescheduled dates will be announced soon. For updates and information, please visit www.brendanbenson.com. Benson has been live-streaming a song from his Instagram every day as part of his “Boy In A Bubble” series — tune in at 10.20PM BST every day HERE.    

Benson finds himself in an enviable spot as he enters the third decade of a remarkably creative, consistently idiosyncratic career – an accomplished frontman, musician, songwriter, producer, band member, husband, and dad. ‘Dear Life’ marks this consummate polymath’s most inventive and upbeat work thus far, an 11-track song cycle about life, love, family, fatherhood, and the pure joy of making music. Produced and almost entirely performed by Benson at his own Readymade Studio in Nashville, the album sees the Michigan-born, Nashville-based artist – and co-founder, with Jack White, of The Raconteurs – revelling in a more modernist approach than ever before, fueled by a heady brew of cannabis, hip-hop, and a newly discovered interest in software drum programming. The result is an untapped playfulness that elevates expertly crafted songs like the future funk-fueled opener, “I Can If You Want Me To,” and the ecstatic “Richest Man Alive” with voluble arrangements, elastic grooves, and incandescent power. Imbued with revitalized ambition and confidence, ‘Dear Life’ is Brendan Benson at his very best. 

“There’s something about this record,” Benson says. “A friend of mine called it ‘life-affirming.’ I thought it was a joke at first but then realized, well, it’s about life and death for sure. I don’t know if that’s positive or optimistic or whatever, but that’s what’s going on with me.