The River Tyne has seen many singer-songwriters bubbling up from its banks. After Sting and Neil Tennant, Richard Dawson and Sam Fender comes 24-year-old Brooke Bentham, who used to play buskers nights with Fender in Newcastle before his career went stratospheric. Her lovely, sleepy sound recalls the US indie-rock of the 1990s, made for late-night drives, alone, listening to the car radio.
Bentham started releasing singles while studying at London’s Goldsmiths University. She got into Yo La Tengo and Mazzy Star, whose woozy atmospheres linger around her 2017 EPs The Room Swayed and This Rapture. Not long after, she met Bill Ryder-Jones, who now plays in her band, produced her recently released debut album, and has described her lyrical talents as being up there with those of Alex Turner and the Coral’s James Skelly.
Bentham’s album, Everyday Nothing, is about the tensions and extremes of young adulthoodas its title suggests, its sound bed one of reverb-laden drums and guitars. The best tracks include Blue Light, whose chorus wouldn’t feel out of place if done by Crowded House, and the propulsive, grungy Control, about being ghosted (its brilliant video shows with black humour the dead weight of missing someone, an unseeing Bentham pouring milk into a glass until it overflows). Elsewhere, doo-wop and the fuzzier edges of Pavement and REM linger gorgeously.
Everyday Nothing by Brooke Bentham is out now on AllPoints. She plays Yes, Manchester, 16 March; Crofters Rights, Bristol, 18 March; Omeara, London, 19 March, then supports Sam Fender, at O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester 20 & 21 March; and Barrowlands, Glasgow, 23 & 24 March
