jay bennett

A Week With Jay Bennett's "The Magnificent Defeat": Day 4

29 October 2006
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Words by Sean Moeller//Illustration by Erica Parrott
Encrusted in a couple of places scattered throughout this record are priceless examples of why Jay Bennett matters as an invaluable American songwriter and why he will be remembered for his entire oeuvre and not just his tenure in that one Chicago rock band that starts with a capital “W.” “Slow Beautifully Seconds Faster” is the best album opening song on any record this year that’s not Midlake’s “Roscoe.” You can’t help the truth. Bennett did it with this song that has a dancing partner somewhere in the ether that is the space between “Yankee Hotel Foxtrot” and “A Ghost Is Born.” To say it comes from between those two records and not claiming it’s a long lost cousin to one of those records is because it’s not a facsimile of a style, just a splendid trace of the same actionable starting point and trading post for those albums of considerable imagination. When Bennett sings, “She was six-beer ugly/And I was only 3-beer drunk,” in an uncredited song tacked onto the end of album-ending treasure “Good As Gold,” he’s Merle Haggard and God is that great to hear. Most of this exceptional record sounds like the country-ish wonders Elvis Costello could have drummed up had he drifted into the genre during his earlier days, long before he married Diana Krall and lost a lot of his spunk, not to mention his nads. For the writing of this record, Bennett told me he bascially sequestered himself in his studio—with David Vandervelde working on his debut in the next room over—and just put his hands to the fire. “I’m Feelin’ Fine” must have been written on one of his rare good days because most of the subject matter is undeniably heartbreak riddled—not that I’m complaining. He’s naturally easy to listen to as the miserably tortured artist. He was born to live that role it would sometimes seem. But “I’m Feelin’ Fine” is so boisterous that it heralds sunshine in your smile and your coat goddam it. It’s a song—so Crowded House or something—that you should start your day (every day) with. His falling apart in song—the situations that led to it—deserves a breathless accreditation. Consider this it.

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