Album: Brendan Benson, My Old, Familiar Friend, (Echo)

With the Raconteurs on hold while Jack White hangs out with his new, (familiar) Dead Weather friends, guitarist and singer-songwriter Benson is free to explore his own slightly less powerful power pop.

"I fell in love with you/ And out of love with you/ And back in love with/ All on the same day" he sings cheerily on opener "A Whole Lot Better". And that pleasure of a man free to go his own way never lets up. MOFF is the sound of Matthew Sweet circa Girlfriend. Not as fresh as it sounds, then, but there's pleasure for the listener, too.