Alternative/indie artist Brendan Benson is set to release his newest album titled Low Key, featuring songs he amassed and cultivated during the two-year isolation period of Covid-19. In response to the solitude, the fading relationships that came about from the lessened frequency of normal human interaction, the Nashville-based artist used music to “explore how lives and relationships changed during the lengthy isolation,” simultaneously poking fun at Benson’s own destructive self-absorption in the face of loneliness or his “hyperkinetic, stream of consciousness thinking, framing his mental struggles contemplating and dealing with the ends of relationships as more than the simple afterthought he initially meant it to be.

In preparation for the album’s December release, Rolling Stone has partnered with Benson in the premiere of his new music video for the track “Aint No Good,” the first single previewed o the masses off of the upcoming album. The video depicts Benson and his friends skateboarding throughout the busy streets of an extremely-populated city, highlighting both the skaters’ failures and successes as they fall and get back up again.

Watch the video below.

While the tone of the album seems somewhat depressing based on the given theme, the album’s mastering engineer at Sterling Sound, Greg Calbi, described the music as a combination of “the classic ‘80s style
songwriting in the Squeeze, Crowded House vein with some incredible contemporary sonic magic, the kind of album which entices the listener to get tickets to a live show immediately.”

Brendan Benson himself described his eighth studio album Low Key as “the best of his career” as he turned “what could have been a liability of isolation into something far deeper.” He went on to explain how inspiring, invigorating, and liberating this algum was for himself and the future of his musical career: “I have nothing to prove anymore…With age and experience comes a certain wisdom and freedom. I feel comfortable, confident, I don’t need validation. That’s why I am so excited for everyone to hear this. I think I’ve finally figured it out.”

In addition to digital/streaming platforms, the album will be available on a limited edition 180-gram blue vinyl.

Low Key Tracklisting:

Side A:
Aint’ No Good
I Missed The Plane
People Grow Apart
Right Down The Line

Side B:
Whole Lotta Nothin
Whatever’s On My Mind
All In
Something A Little Like Home

Check out an album review of Brendan Benson’s previous 2020 album, Dear Life. 

Brendan Benson is also known for his work with The Raconteurs. Watch a 2013 performance of Jack White and Brendan Benson performing two Raconteurs songs in Nashville.