[rating=3.50]
Ben Kweller writes pop songs. They’re cheerful and they fly by in a way that belies the forty-minute clock of his new self titled album. Sure, there are the overly sweet and sentimental lines (“Until I Die”) and the guitar riffs that hearken to his teenage days in the post grunge trio Radish (as on album closer “This Is War”). But they’re all pop songs at heart and the nice thing about Kweller is that he makes no apologies for this.
For this, the boyish 25 year old’s third solo album, Kweller took a new route that seems to fit his style without just regurgitating his previous work. As opposed to his last album, On My Way, which was recorded almost entirely live with his band, Kweller took the opportunity this time around to stretch out and play all of the instruments himself. While this gives the album a little more polish than its predecessor, it does so in a way that seems a logical next step in his career. Tracks like “Run,” “Thirteen.” and “Magic” are carried along by a buoyant piano, while lyrically Kweller lets loose his inner softy (the one who talks of running away, laying in bed with his sweetheart, and staring across the ocean) with a youthful innocence, or perhaps he’s just following a few of those guidelines for catchy pop songs.
