Benji Tranter - Songs to Make You Happy (2023)

Currently, it seems that bedroom pop as a specific genre started to include so many things, with one constant – excellent melody lines. If you accept such a definition, then Welsh singer and songwriter Benji Tranter and his most recent album, Songs To Make You Happy, fit within that definition quite nicely.

Actually, Tranter seems to cover quite a wide ground here – from what you may call ‘typical’ modern songwriters like Elliot Smith and Conor Oberst, to those more left-field like Daniel Johnston, R. Stevie Moore and Johnathan Richman, to more, shall we say, songwriters such as Nick Drake and Scott Walker.

Quite a wide ground to cover, but Tranter, who reappears after a five-year hiatus, seems to manage it quite admirably, mashing songwriting styles with no less admirable lyrics that often turn into some lyrical short stories.