Dear John Letters
“Stories of Our Lives”
(Foodchain Records)
Dear John Letters is a song-oriented indie pop group featuring singer-songwriter Robb Benson (Nevada Bachelors). This is definitely accessible music in touch with the times. “Creation Myth” could be a deconstructed reflection of “Mr. Jones” (Counting Crows). But in this song, coming as it does from a sparse and repetitive but honest, compelling and bubbling arrangement the throat-wrecking yell in the chorus marks this as a song to real and personal for true commodification. Going in the other direction, songs like “Sorry to Sorry” sound like one of the revealing Daniel Johnston “songs of pain” built up to reach a wider, college audience.
