Download Jay Bennett's New Album for Free

I seem to be about a month behind on this, but I figured I'd post it anyway because, well, I'm pretty psyched about it.

Jay Bennett, formerly of Wilco, has released his latest album, Whatever Happened I Apologize, and is making it available for free download to all at Rockproper.com.

If you're interested in why Jay decided to release the album for free, well, here's what he had to say on his MySpace page:

As anyone keeping a watchful eye on me has noticed, October came and went without the release of "Kicking at the Perfumed Air." The reason for this: In the final stages of completing "Kicking at the Perfumed Air" at Pieholden Suite Sound (http://www.myspace.com/pieholdenstudios), I was simultaneously working on a very personal and concise 10-song album called "Whatever Happened I Apologize." After debating back and forth, I have decided to release "Apologize" first. I am somewhat at a loss for words as to explain why I arrived at this decision, save to say it's just one of those lonely and private choices one sometimes has to make—in other words, it just felt more like the right album for the time.

It is stark, stripped down, and acoustic based—more so than any other record I have made. I really wanted to capture the simpler and more emotional nature of the songwriting, and I knew that the only way I could do this was to put it together quickly, with no second-guessing, and no heavy deliberating about minor details. Consequently I would have to learn to embrace the resultant imperfections—and I have. All of the vocals are done live to my own acoustic guitar accompaniment, so it has some "warts," but, in my effort to not forsake integrity for technical perfection, the album ended up feeling more honest, immediate, naked, and cohesive to me. I am very proud of presenting myself without my typical voluminous bells and whistles. I am left wondering why I haven't done this more often in the past.

As I've really wanted to help out my studio partner, Matt DeWine, and his partner Casey Meehan, with their new "download record label," rockproper, that's just where you can find this new album: http://www.rockproper.com. Again, it's called "Whatever Happened I Apologize," and did I mention it's free? I hope you enjoy it. Please let me know what you think. I would also like to encourage you all to check out some of the other free downloads, by some of the great artists, available on the site.

Love,
Jay
http://www.myspace.com/jaybennett

I'm about three songs into the album so far, and I really, really like it. In fact, I may like it more than anything he's done since The Palace at 4am. Highly recommended.