Low Key, Brendan Benson, LP

Limited 180gm vinyl LP pressing. Not every two-year period measures out the same, noted Brendan Benson, the 51-year old Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter and co-founder of The Raconteurs. Benson had just finished his well-received seventh album, Dear Life, in 2019 when his world came to a stop. The lockdown then began to reroute lives, societies and ambitions worldwide. Two years of semi-isolation, of fading relationships, of the natural inward turn that comes with less human contact unexpectedly pushed Benson's songwriting into new places. Instead of being an afterthought, Benson's solitude evolved into Low Key, the eighth album by the idiosyncratic songwriter who has enjoyed both world-wide popularity with the Raconteurs and a devoted cult following for his numerous solo projects. Those years spent honing his craft as a songwriter, producer, and touring musician, turned what could have been a liability of isolation into something far deeper, a body of work he described as the best of his career.