In March 2007, I wrote a post with this title: “New Brendan Benson?: Feel Like Taking You Home.” More than two years later, you can take off the question mark. A new album, called My Old, Familiar Friend, is due for release Aug. 18 on ATO. If you’re scoring at home, that’s four-plus years since we last heard a Brendan Benson solo project, 2005’s The Alternative to Love. (Of course, Benson has been busy with the Raconteurs, a worthwhile excuse for such a wide gap between solo releases.)
If I recall correctly, the version of Feel Like Taking You Home that I posted in 2007 was a demo/rough edit that he posted to his MySpace page. (You know, the good ol’ days when songs were downloadable off that site.) Stereogum debuted the proper studio version – a finished product that very closely resembles the demo cut – and I’ve reposted below. (If you really want that rough cut, drop me an e-mail .)
Here’s the tracklisting for My Old, Familiar Friend (album artwork shown above), which was produced by Gil Norton:
1. A Whole Lot Better
2. Eyes on The Horizon
3. Garbage Day
4. Gonowhere
5. Feel Like Taking You Home
6. You Make a Fool Out of Me
7. Poised and Ready
8. Don’t Want to Talk
9. Misery
10. Lesson Learned
11. Borrow