Brett Dennen - Hope for the Hopeless

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Brett Dennen - Hope for the Hopeless

“Those who find the approach of John Mayer a little too uncomfortably in-your-face would do well to check out this third offering from Brett Dennen, which lopes along on the teddy-bear Californian’s gentle voice and gentler sentiments. Dennen’s 2006 breakthrough, “So Much More,” contained more than a few highly sweet coffee-shop love songs, but “Hopeless” aims for Greater Importance, with Dennen offering cotton-candy social commentary on “Make You Crazy” (as in, the world is enough to) and “World Keeps Turning” (which it does, and you can’t do nothin’ to slow it down). Dennen’s tenuous vocals (and lyrics) are better suited to silly love songs than this sort of material, and though producer John Alagia knows how to make the guitars jingle and jangle and how to work up a soft, swimmy groove, Dennen needs a little more to rise out of the ever-growing multitude of sensitive guitar dudes. —Jeff Vrabel”