Song Premiere: Young Hines, “Rainy Day”

Discovered by Brendan Benson when he heard a house painter playing a demo, Georgia native Young Hines is the first artist The Raconteur’s co-frontman signed to his new label, Readymade Records. Like Benson, Hines has a penchant for big, unabashed productions and a gift for pop songwriting. His debut album Give Me My Change will come out on April 10, while Benson’s fifth solo album, What Kind Of World, will be released on April 24. On Hines’ record there’s the permeating (and, at times, distracting) influence of John Lennon, nowhere more than first single “Rainy Day.” It’s mainly Hines’ vocal inflection that will carry the brunt of the Beatles’ comparisons. He has that nasally blues tone and can easily achieve the sound Lennon once described to McCartney as “leaving the top of your head,” when the latter was trying to figure out how to sing “Kansas City.” But the best bits on Hines’ album are the little pop-soul nuggets, such as a tune called “You Keep Me Goin’,” which sounds like it might have introduced a very fetching scene in one of your favorite ’60s films. Recorded at Nashville’s Welcome To 1979 studio (which also hosts quadraphonic Dark Side Of The Moon listening parties), Give Me My Change is brimming with vintage keyboard sounds and a wonderful, warm production. If sounding like John Lennon is a crime, I don’t wanna be on the right side of the law.