A.T.W. - Brett Dennen's Hope For The Hopeless

Let me just get this out of the way.  It's been a long time since I wrote up an Album of the Week post.  Partly, it's because I'm a bit lazy at times, partly I've had other priorities, but mostly, the passion I had for music had faded a bit.  That was until Brett Dennen's new album came out.

Hope For The Hopeless is Brett's third outing, and I'm glad to say that it's my favorite so far.  I first stumbled onto Brett last summer when I found his second album So Much More, sometime around the time that I found Ray LaMontagne and was starting to get heavy into the resurfacing folk scene.  Although he is purely a folk artist, Brett's voice (both his physical voice and his lyrical voice) are genuinely unique and beautiful.  He has a style of song crafting that finds a way to slide into your soul, do a little jig, and then set up shack for a couple of days while you whistle his songs incessantly.

With Hope For The Hopeless, Brett took a slightly scary approach for a folk musician: He added a heavier layer of production over his soulful songs.  His past two records have been fairly bare, which suits his voice well.  The more attention on his most unique and endearing feature the better.  But there's something absolutely magical about Hope's added polish that absolutely shoots this record to the top of my favorites list.

The album opens with San Francisco, a track that showcases a lot of what Dennen is: Soulful, poetic, and folky.  The meat of the album, though, starts with the next two tracks.  Make You Crazy, the opening single for this album, is borderline pop with the perfectly catchy hook and quasi-Caribbean-esque rhythms (check out the video at the end of the post).  I'll be honest here and say that I've caught myself belting this one out in the shower over the past few days, even if the subject matter is a bit heavy.  I suppose he was in a deep mood while writing this album though, as the next track, Heaven, delves into religion and a persons quest to find peace.  Don't let that turn you off though, as the track is simply bliss with it's expertly crafted guitar riffs and flowing vocals.  Other stand out tracks: the quite So Far From Me, the plea-ful Ain't Gonna Lose You, the finger-pointing of Who Do You Think You Are, and the quintessential Brett Dennen sound of World Keeps Turning.

In short, I'm highly recommending this album.  It's phenomenal and looks to be one that I still queue up on my iPod years from now.  And be sure to get it from the Amazon MP3 store links on this page.  It's cheaper than the iTunes store, integrates right into your iTunes without you having to do anything, and has a bonus track you won't get from Apple (not to mention the few pennies they throw my way when you buy it through my links).

Brett Dennen - Make You Crazy