An Alternative hit

Pop-rock singer Brendan Benson is happy with the results of his album Alternative To Love.

At 34, Brendan Benson is a one-man compendium of the emotional spectrum offered by the rock experience. In a decade-long career, he has ridden the euphoria of a major record deal and felt the thud of being abruptly dropped. His music swung from punk to richly sophisticated, hook-filled pop-rock, and his attitude about the whole thing has ranged from slacker casual to flat-out ambitious.

Even his biggest recent boost taps a vein of ambivalence: his affiliation with the White Stripes' Jack White, who popped up on stage with Benson at a West Hollywood club last May, then invited Benson to play a song with the Stripes at a larger outdoor venue last August.

The two Detroit residents are also the principals of a side band called the Raconteurs, which will release an album this year, possibly with a tour to follow.

"For a long time it was getting just annoying," says Benson. "Never doing an interview without someone asking about Jack, or there wasn't any article that didn't mention his name. So I was starting to wonder, Is this going to hurt me in the end? If he goes down do I go down with him or what?

"But I think it's been more helpful than anything. I can't think of anyone better to be attached to. He's a big success and I reach a lot more people through him, but I also admire him. He's one of the best songwriters out there for sure, so I don't mind being associated with him."

Musically, it's not an immediately obvious pairing. White might have broadened the Stripes' stylistic range, but he's still primarily a power player, while Benson has established himself as a finesse artist.

His third album, The Alternative to Love, is textbook power-pop, even if Benson himself rejects that term, associating it with bands such as Weezer. A harvest of hooks and harmonies, catchy melodies and eccentrically unfolding arrangements, it pulls together strands of Rubber Soul and Elliott Smith, the Replacements and Phil Spector.

"I'm really happy; I feel like it's a huge success," he says. "I do want to succeed commercially; I have no problem saying that. At one time I felt that commercial success could potentially ruin what I have. I don't know, it's a fragile way to be, and I just don't feel so fragile anymore. I just feel certain about what it is I do, and nothing is going to change that."