SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BENJI TRANTER – SONGS TO MAKE YOU HAPPY

Benji Tranter
Songs To Make You Happy
Pear O’Legs Records

Currently, it seems that bedroom pop as a specific genre started to include so many things, with one constant – excellent melody lines. If you accept such a definition, then Welsh singer and songwriter Benji Tranter and his most recent album, Songs To Make You Happy, fit within that definition quite nicely.

Actually, Tranter seems to cover quite a wide ground here – from what you may call ‘typical’ modern songwriters like Elliot Smith and Conor Oberst, to those more left-field like Daniel Johnston, R. Stevie Moore and Johnathan Richman, to more, shall we say, songwriters such as Nick Drake and Scott Walker.

Quite a wide ground to cover, but Tranter, who reappears after a five-year hiatus, seems to manage it quite admirably, mashing songwriting styles with no less admirable lyrics that often turn into some lyrical short stories.

It seems that Tranter has used that hiatus quite admirably to hone down his art presented on this album.

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