If music can be separated into commercial (that which is created specifically for a target audience based on preconceived ideas on what they want) and personal (that which is created to represent the state of the artist at any given time with little regard to how it will be received by the public) than Lapalco, though hardly uncompromising, definitely fits the latter category.
Bensons only other release ONE MISSISSIPPI, dates from 1996, when he was signed to Virgin. Rumor has it that Lapalco took years to complete, and it seems like less a careerist follow up to a cult album than a personal documenting of the self doubt that can plague an artist trying to get back on track after a long silence. Benson definitely feels our pain, and writers, poets, and musicians alike (or just the generally angst-riddled) can hear much to relate to throughout the cd.
The artistic frustration is scattered throughout the many boy/girl moments on Lapalco: 'I know a guy, lives in Los Angeles, Sometimes his life there makes me so jealous' (from Metarte); or: 'Let me find my way back, I'm not making any contact' (from Just Like Me).
My favorite line from the entire CD is 'Ain't got time for my bed-in, She says ‘Stop pretendin, You're not John Lennon.' ' from Folk Singer. And you know Yoko probably said that to John himself.
The album is SO recorded at home, mostly by Benson himself, and on 5 tracks, by Benson and Jason Falkner. Each track retains the multi-tracked- by-one- person sound of McCartney or Rundgren (distinct from someone like Jason Falkner who manages to sound like 4 or 5 different people playing together on his multi-tracked efforts). The lo-fi sound pretty much guarantees that much of it will never compete for time on the Clear Channel airwaves, but I'm sure that that is something that Brendan Benson is completely happy with.
Lapalco is full of well produced pop, while even in its bigger moments retaining the type of intimacy heard on the White Album, or Paul McCartney's first post Beatles offering, McCartney. If Lapalco is an extremely mellow version of Brendan Benson's primal scream album, his Imagine may be right around the corner.
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