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CD REVIEW: Drennan's CD offers hope in trying times Steve Morley, Jul 17, 2009
Brett Dennen: Hope for the Hopeless Label: Dualtone Sound/Style: Sensitive and insightful folk-rock
By Steve Morley United Methodist News Service
Singer/songwriter Brett Dennen begins his new album pondering a move to San Francisco, and later sings about relocating eastward to a New York City brownstone. He’s taking creative license, of course, but the geographical stretch makes a handy analogy for Mr. Dennen’s musical blend.
On his third effort, Hope for the Hopeless, he borrows from both coasts: the bohemian folk music scene birthed in New York’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960s and the barefoot peacenik sensibility that later sprang from his native California. Mr. Dennen’s mixture evokes the spirit of the ‘60s but takes post-modern liberties that pare down the excesses and fiery dynamics of the vintage styles from which he draws.
The loose-limbed shuffle on most of the 11 tracks initially seems at odds with Mr. Dennen’s consciousness-raising lyrics, which mix sensitivity and insight with a casual and conversational quality.
“Who Do You Think You Are?” wonders aloud about the whereabouts of old friends before focusing on society’s roles and the way our functions are interwoven, despite socio-economic differences. While the song’s title hints that our own self-perceptions may define our stations in life, its chorus lyric—”don’t be afraid of the hands you play”— prompts the listener toward self-acceptance and confidence.
The Afro-beat exuberance of “Make You Crazy”—featuring a guest appearance from Nigerian superstar Femi Kuti—is a toe-tapping, head-bobbing tonic for the human abuses that Mr. Dennen ticks off in the song’s verses. (“Isn’t it a shame the way we cheat each other, treat each other, beat each other/ It’s a shame the way we use one another/ Abuse one another . . . They will lock you up in prison but they won’t call it slavery/ There are stolen children raised and trained in armies/ It’s enough to make you go crazy . . . ”)
The hard-won optimism that underlies Hope for the Hopeless is especially audible in the weary lope of the Neil Young-like “Follow Your Heart.” Mr. Dennen adds weight to that overused phrase by turning his advice into a compass for gracefully navigating unfriendly terrain. (“I’ve been cheated/ I’ve been defeated/ I played the game and I’ve been double-crossed/ Every friend of mine has been in hard times/ Follow your heart, follow your heart/ Follow your heart and you won’t get lost.”)
“So Far From Me” astutely summarizes the divergent emotional styles of the sexes and explaining what makes true intimacy so elusive. (“If my heart wasn’t such a jungle/ Maybe you wouldn’t feel so all alone/ If your heart wasn’t such an ocean/ I wouldn’t sink like a stone.”)
Mr. Dennen speaks with surprising authority on “Heaven,” a song that dismisses every man-made obstacle to the afterlife, from legalism to exclusive denominational claims. Though the lyric might sound heretical to some, it perceptively points out that our inherent human biases may color our vision of what Heaven will or should be like. (“There’s no color lines or castes or classes/ There’s no fooling the masses/ Whatever faith you practice/ Whatever you believe . . . ”)
The steady, sobering pulse and provocative lyrics of the track make it a singular moment on the disc, though it puts a unifying perspective on most everything else Mr. Dennen says about the frailties of civilization and the struggle of the individual to find his or her place within it.
Mr. Dennen’s overall low-key style may make him less arresting than his more charismatic predecessors. But behind the understated folk-rock of Hope for the Hopeless is evidence that thinking and feeling can be done at the same time.
“Who Do You Think You Are?” wonders aloud about the whereabouts of old friends before focusing on society’s roles and the way our functions are interwoven, despite socio-economic differences. While the song’s title hints that our own self-perceptions may define our stations in life, its chorus lyric—”don’t be afraid of the hands you play”— prompts the listener toward self-acceptance and confidence. 
