BRETT DENNEN – LOVER BOY
Brett Dennen’s second album release, Lover Boy, is an upbeat sugar coated pop album that speaks to the playful side of us. Each track infectiously warms the cockles of the heart and and you’ll probably feel embarrassed that you found yourself dancing so jovially to it in the kitchen while you had the album on in the background. From the album opener Surprise, Surprise the first striking impression from the record is the quality of Dennen’s voice as it seems a childlike version of Van Morrison, who is also a likely candidate for inspiration in Dennen’s writing as demonstrated by Make You Fall In Love With Me. Lover Boy continues on its merry way with Comeback Kid, a tale about the universal underdog but Lover Boy also enters soul R&B territory with songs such as the elegantly written Frozen In Slow Motion and Only Rain, 70s funk on Queen Of The Westside and Dennen even flirts with sunshine reggae on the track Can’t Stop Thinking About You. The album invokes comparison’s to Joni Mitchell and Josh Pyke in it’s playfulness however it appears that lyrically, although everyone can relate to the Dennen’s ideals and concepts, he doesn’t really have anything profound to say. Also, while each tune is catchy on its own, the tracks just seem to blend into one after a while. You can’t hold it against him though. He’s just on a quest to write the perfect pop record.
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