HAVING achieved something close to fame with the Raconteurs, Brendan Benson returns to his pop/rock home ground.

This is expertly crafted with plenty of hooks and an excellent period production (reminiscent of Wings). However, looking beyond the initial attractive familiarity, it is formulaic and doesn’t break new ground; Benson’s previous three records did the same thing, only more memorably.

The best numbers are, surprisingly, where Benson deviates from the power-pop template and comes close to flirting with disco. Garbage Day adds an excellent string arrangement to a fairly standard Benson song, giving it a real uplift.

Better still, Feel Like Taking You Home Now could, if put through a remix, turn into a dancefloor hit, with an insistent groove and catchy melody; which would be an unexpected twist for anyone who marked Benson as a perennial under-achiever.