Brendan Benson's songs are almost exclusively about girls: nearly every harmony-heavy track buried deep inside Benson's discography contains some sort of nod to a mangled or budding relationship, even if that allusion ends up sitting in the context of an entirely separate story. Ladies are tied to chairs, or eating soft-serve ice cream from Dairy Queen, or helpfully pointing out to everyone that Benson's just "not John Lennon." But no matter how tragic Benson's girl-trouble may occasionally seem, that ache has gotta be dwarfed by the devastation of his industry woes-- if profound major label distrust were to be given a dubious, heartbroken face, it would probably look an awful lot like Benson's sheepish mug.
After being pegged as pop/rock's new blonde hero by critics and college DJs in 1996, Benson's promising Virgin Records debut, the effusive One Mississippi, was promptly declared insignificant by label heads, denied a substantial promotional backing, and left to languish peaceably in relative obscurity (see: the vast warehouses of Amazon UK). Virgin had signed Benson based on the strength of an untempered six-song demo, but their flippant dismissal of One Mississippi was preceded by loads of unsolicited meddling: the label had already asked Benson to shelve his original version of the record, produced by co-conspirator and one-time Jellyfish member Jason Falkner (who also co-wrote over half the songs), in order to work with Jane's Addiction/Minutemen producer Ethan James.
Benson succumbed to the label's request and dutifully re-recorded One Mississippi with James at the production helm. As agreed, Virgin then shipped the record to radio stations, and Benson nobly attempted his first major support tour, opening for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers. But with little radio airplay and the still proscenium-shy Benson stumbling around awkwardly on stage, One Mississippi was largely ignored and Benson was dropped by Virgin; unsurprisingly, it took nearly five years for Benson to untangle himself and release a follow-up, 2002's comparably straightforward (but Jack White-endorsed!) Lapalco. Now with independent StarTime International, Benson has released a plumped-up, twenty-two track version of One Mississippi (including the six Falkner-produced tracks and two bonus songs, previously available only on the Japanese version of the LP), complete with gushing, masterpiece-declaring liner notes, thus priming the record for admission into the long-lost-classic canon.
One Mississippi deserves much of its hyperbolic praise: showcasing Benson's indisputable songwriting prowess, it's packed with tight melodies, feisty guitar jabs, and some inescapably catchy harmonies, a pop/rock treasure chest that's both impossibly listenable and surprisingly complex; Benson's addictive hooks tend to conceal rich, oddly understated arrangements, and his guitar work can be both Townshend-abrasive and bubblegum easy. For folks who've already managed to wrap their hands around an original copy of One Mississippi, there are enough extras here to justify the investment and satiate completists.
The Falkner-produced versions ("Crosseyed", "Me Just Purely", "Cherries", "I'm Blessed", and "Sittin' Pretty" are all present in duplicate) of One Mississippi's final cuts tend to be more stubbornly lo-fi and generally richer, while "Christy", which didn't make it onto the James-produced edition, is a gratifyingly aggressive addition. Still, Brendan Benson's epic tale of major label wreckage is oddly inconclusive: he may have been waylaid and wearied by unsympathetic suits, but-- as if this story could get any more prototypically indie!-- Benson's earliest stuff still stands up as his best.
