Will Bennett, first of all, is a champeen songwriter and a guardian of heartland rock. On his new split, Bennett returns to his roots with “Golden, Colorado,” a mid-tempo rocker that tells the true story of his parents’ romance, painting a nostalgic image of two working-class kids with a dream and a hope of getting by. “Ten-Speed” turns that nostalgia into something bittersweet.
Will Bennett, second of all, is a damn good designer. (He’s the reason this site looks so good.) And he’s been spending the last 5 years between song releases honing both crafts — these songs are gorgeously lush and have a verve not seen in Bennett’s earlier work.
That’s in large part thanks to Bennett’s time focusing on producing and editing. “Golden, Colorado” crackles with the energy of Daniel Martinson and Lucie Engleman’s insistent rhythm section, which provides the backbone for Harry Griffin’s muscular fretwork, Philippe Bronchtine’s honky tonk piano, and Kate In’s harmonies.
Bennett is also hoping that this split will spawn a bit of a Spotify stream pyramid scheme: if you share this song with 5 people, and they share it with 5 people…maybe Will can earn one US dollar from this song. That’s another reason why Will has been laying low: he knows that there’s always time for good songwriting, rather than trying to keep up with the endless churn the streaming economy demands.