Ben Kweller - Ben Kweller

The new Ben Kweller album is album of the week because he’s wearing a bandana and I’m wearing a bandana, and I like bandanas, so I think it’s cool! No, it’s because I played all the instruments on the album. It’s really weird to talk about your own album, and why it should be album of the week. It really is the best album of the week though. The fact that I played all the instruments and the songs are really personal, really direct, and autobiographical, it’s really good to learn a lot about who I am and a lot of my beliefs. I think that the sound is really different from a lot of rock ‘n roll music that’s going on right now. It harks back to the days of classic rock singers like Bruce Springsteen or Tom Petty. There aren’t a lot of solo male rockers out there anymore. There are a lot of great bands with great frontmen, and a lot of solo rap stars and solo country stars, but there aren’t a lot of solo rock guys. There are a lot of singer/songwriters, folky types, but I suppose I’m bringing back that side of rock ‘n roll in a way.

I guess what makes it album of the week is songs like ‘Thirteen’ and ‘Penny On A Train Track’. ‘Thirteen’ is just a really great love song, totally personal. One thing about all the love songs on this album is that they talk about the dark side of love too, it’s not all ‘I wanna hold your hand’, ‘I love you’. There’s actually a lot of sadness in there, and talking about the ups and the downs, the negative sides of everything. It’s an album of balance, and fun. The song ‘Run’ has a really fun Phil Spector feel to it.

I give it four out of five.