BY MOLLY TEMPLETON
Experienced
Ben Kweller belies his age.
B
en Kweller ’s self-titled third album
begins with Kweller rambling, “When I was
a movie star an asteroid had hit the earth and
is rich with the imagery of long-
prematurely ended my career.”) On My Way
standing love, a decade’s worth of
expands on Sha Sha’s energetic, playful
traveling and the strange interactions that
charm, alternating rock songs full of dirty
result when you cross paths with really old
guitars with Kweller’s signature heart-on-
friends. A logical progression from his first
sleeve piano ballads. But it also offers up the
record, the endearing, off-kilter Sha Sha, and
title track, a sweetly unassuming campfire
2004’s more ’70s-influenced On My Way,
singalong about surprising yourself with the
the new album features the singer-song-
things you can be and do.
writer on every instrument, from piano (on
This third album gently stretches the BK
the lovely ballad “Thirteen,” a tonal cousin
sound — the rhythms are dif-
to Sha Sha’s soaring “Falling”)
ferent, the lyrics broader, the
to triangle.
Ben Kweller,
charm laid on thicker.
You could call it Kweller’s
Sam Roberts Band
Kweller oh-ohs his way
most mature album, though
9 pm Wednesday,
through “Magic”’s bridge,
that description would be a lit-
9/27 • WOW Hall
throws in a “momma” here
tle early in coming for a musi-
$15 adv., $17 door
and a “baby” there on “I
cian all of 25 years old. But
Gotta Move” and comes off
young BK (as he refers to him-
unabashedly besotted on the sweet first sin-
self in Sha Sha’s “No Reason”) has the
gle, “Sundress.” Maybe “Red Eye,” a
career and experience of an older man. He
mopey downtempo track, and some of the
left high school to play with his mid-’90s alt-
sillier lyrics to the bombastic “This is War”
rock band Radish, then headed to Brooklyn,
(“I can’t be your friend/’cause I gotta knock
started playing solo and eventually signed to
you out”) aren’t among Kweller’s brightest
Dave Matthews’ ATO Records.
moments. But in a way, even the less imme-
But don’t let the DMB connection put
diately appealing songs make sense; it’s all
you off. Sha Sha is a youthful masterpiece,
part of Kweller’s Brooklyn-by-way-of-
11 quirky, obscenely catchy pop songs that
Texas, hip yet unironic appeal, and if every
mixed Weezer’s nerdy, distorted sensibility
single song doesn’t win you over on first
with a James Tayloresque, classic-rock piano
listen, that might just mean they take a little
underpinning and a notebook’s worth of
longer to sink in and stay.
rambling, goofy, earnest lyrics (the album
ew
32 SEPTEMBER 21, 2006