Another day, another genre. This time it is lounge pop with the new album “On Holiday” from Rich Bennett. With but the briefest pause to peruse the press release – that even manages to misspell the name of the album – it is time for an immersion in a curiosity.
Let’s start with the lounge pop thing first. I can’t say that this is a genre that I was familiar with but the word on the street is that Martin Denny is the godfather in that part of town. Rich Bennett apparently even claims Mr Denny as an influence although there isn’t really much in common with the maestro (dig about in your grandparent’s record collection – there is bound to be a Martin Denny album in there somewhere) as what we have here is much darker in tone bearing more resemblance to an amalgam of left of centre troubadours like Baltimore’s The Agrarians and the Mamas and the Papas. The screwed up uncomfortableness of “Wild Ride” is a good example of this. Then you have to consider the almost sleazy sub porno grooving of “EPO” that would sound right at home in the Twilight Room at a Ramada Inn. It’s the soundtrack to chicken in a basket (with a very sticky sauce).
A dramatic, in the theatrical sense, right turn takes place with “The Peak” taking us off in to a lo-fi journey into ambient electronica before “Night Pt1” and “Night Pt2” heads off into the arena of a soundtrack to a really cool sixties European movie.
To a certain extent this is a confusing album as it doesn’t really seem to know where it is going. Much of the pleasure derived from it comes from the vocal interplay between the downbeat Mr Bennett and the civilised Rebecca Pronsky but the lasting value comes from the almost wilful obscurity of it all. I can’t supply scientific proof but, trust me, it just works.