Brendan Benson is best known for being one quarter of the bubblegum blues-rock supergroup the Raconteurs, playing second fiddle to the far more prominent Jack White. Benson's solo material has always had a more difficult time reaching a larger audience, and understandably: On his first two records, One Mississippi and Lapalco, Benson shamelessly pillaged Raspberries and Big Star records, and both albums contain several songs co-written with Jason Falkner of seminal '90s power-pop band Jellyfish. It's no surprise, then, that Benson would suffer the same fate as the genre's unappreciated forebears: critical approval but commercial disregard. Thankfully it hasn't deterred Benson yet—his latest LP, titled What Kind of World, is more of the same, and that's totally fine by me. MORGAN TROPER