Brett Dennen
So Much More
(Dualtone)
First Appeared in The Music Box, May 2008, Volume 15, #5
Written by John Metzger
Tue May 20, 2008, 06:30 AM CDT
Brett Dennen may have been only 25 years old when he issued his sophomore effort So Much More. Yet, the first thing that one is apt notice about the endeavor is how wearily resigned he sounds during Ain’t No Reason, the album’s opening cut, as he laments the inability of the human race to forsake its materialistic pursuits. It’s no wonder, then, that on the subsequent There Is So Much More, he is driven to contemplate what awaits him after he dies. Rather than exuding an unshakeable sense of despair, however, Dennen bathes his words with music that echoes the fusion of folk and soul that emerged in the early 1970s, and by doing so, he offers a warm embrace that highlights the set’s other running theme: love will conquer all.
So Much More is poised at the crossroads where Bob Dylan’s Blonde on Blonde, Steve Forbert’s Jackrabbit Slim, and Paul Simon’s Graceland intersect, and it feels almost as if its genesis sprang from an epiphany that Dennen had while listening to these albums in sequence. He not only responds to Forbert’s Romeo’s Tune with his own composition She’s Mine, but Dennen also leans on Forbert’s romantic, soft-rock style, using it as the basis for his soulful articulations. Similarly, he borrows Simon’s ebullient, South African-band-in-New Orleans grooves, and on tracks like Darlin’ Do Not Fear and When You Feel It, he deploys them to wash away his dour mood so that he can take solace in the love that surrounds him.
Although Dennen got the ideas for how to frame his work from Forbert and
Simon, it’s Dylan whose influence festers in his lyrics as well as his sense of
rhythm and rhyme. The seeds that grew into Because You Are a Woman were
planted in the fertile soil of Dylan’s Just Like a Woman, while The
One Who Loves You the Most alludes, at times, to Stuck Inside of Mobile
with the Memphis Blues Again. Likewise, on I Asked When, Dennen
revisits A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall, and from it, he sculpts his own
diatribe for the modern age. To his credit, Dennen doesn’t cop his ideas
directly from his musical ancestors, but rather he twists and bends what they
accomplished to suit his own needs. It’s rare for young artists to get this
portion of the equation correct, and even rarer that they have the wherewithal
to concoct a song cycle that convincingly makes them sound wise beyond their
years. Nevertheless, as So Much More digs deeply into the heart of the
human condition, Dennen also manages to retain his idealism by finding that no
matter how dark it gets, there always will exist the hope that love brings. 
Of Further Interest...
Around the Bend with Steve Forbert (Interview)
Gill Landry - The Ballad of Lawless Soirez
So Much More is available from
Barnes & Noble. To order, Click Here!
Ratings
1 Star: Pitiful
2 Stars: Listenable
3 Stars: Respectable
4 Stars: Excellent
5 Stars: Can't Live Without It!!
Copyright © 2008 The Music Box