"You Stood Me Up" Benji Hughes

From just the little taste I've got here from Benji Hughes (many thanks to Wendy Williams), I cannot wait for his double-disc (!) debut due out in late July. The six tracks on this short EP are all from the massive undertaking, "A Love Extreme," and hopefully it will fulfill the expectations I've got for the set. A two-disc debut is pretty ambitious, and some would say foolish (myself included), but I'm confident it will at least be good. I'm only afraid it will seem bloated, as if Benji wouldn't let anyone help him edit it down to a more manageable tracklist. He wouldn't be the first to attempt the double-disc debut, one other beefy release that comes to mind is "The Headphone Masterpiece" by Cody Chestnutt. I remember this one because when I was young and stupid and in college, I was very excited to hear the whole thing after falling in love with "Look Good in Leather" (yeah yeah, make fun, but this was in the bygone days before Oink's and The Pirate Bay destroyed the concept of a release date...), but what I got was a convoluted mess that I never really listened to. Disappointing to say the least. Anyway, like I said, with the six songs we get on this sampler, I feel pretty good about this release.

For example, "You Stood Me Up" is all twinkling streetlights through the open moonroof, windows down and only the brightest stars visible (see what I did there, with the segue and everything...). You're on the way home from the bar (not the club, too cool for the club), one friend in the passenger seat and another slowly passing out in the back. The streets are empty for the breakdown, streetlights flashing yellow, police sirens wailing wanly in the distance. With a right turn the city sounds become even more muted as the sidewalks and mercury lamps give way to garage door openers and a tree-lined subdivision. This song is cool, nighttime summer, even if the lyrics indicate a thirst for revenge and bitterness at the bitch. But that was hours ago; before the first round, before the five dollars in the jukebox, before the cheese-fries and red-skin peanuts, before that fucking shot of Jaeger, now all you focus on is 24 mph and driving more sober than you feel. This song is summer.

"You Stood Me Up" Benji Hughes
"So Well" Benji Hughes

Official MySpace Buy (album out July 22nd)