Lapalco

Japanese version featuring a bonus track

While Brendan Benson may be best known for receiving the fervent patronage of fellow Detroit natives the White Stripes, the songs on his second album display little of Jack and Meg's garage roar. Rather, Lapalco recalls power-pop groups such as Fountains of Wayne and Teenage Fanclub. Benson and longtime musical colleague Jason Falkner write ornate, Technicolor-bright songs. On "Folk Singer," Benson directly references one of his idols: "She says, 'Stop pretending you're not John Lennon.'" Sure enough, "Tiny Spark" is built around a classic-sounding 1960s riff. Benson also likes to inject character and humor into his songs. In "Metarie," he sings that he "Met a girl/ Introduced myself/ Asked her to go with me/ And no one else," only to be told, "You need a bath/ Your clothes are wrong/ You're not my type/ Know we wouldn't get along." He might mock himself on his own record, but this self-professed loser has produced a winner of an album. --Louis Pattison