Review: “Benny,” by Alex Winston

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Autocratic forces are ascendant.

Truth-telling independent media is one remaining bulwark against an autocrat’s unrestrained exercise of power. At a time when billionaire owners of corporate media are making accommodations to political leaders, our nonprofit newsroom cannot be bought, bent, or broken. Depend on it, and please stand with us.

Autocratic forces are ascendant in America. But truth-telling independent media is one remaining bulwark against the unrestrained exercise of power. At a time when billionaire owners of corporate media are making accommodations to political leaders, our nonprofit newsroom cannot be bought or broken. Please stand with us.

TRACK 9

“Benny”

From Alex Winston’s King Con

Liner notes: “Benny, Benny, takes my penny/Then he skins me to the bone,” trills Alex Winston on her portrait of a sketchy faith healer, embedding barbed observations in a sugary pop anthem.

Behind the music: Winston, a classically trained opera singer and Detroit native, got warmed up for her debut album with a covers EP featuring songs by the Rolling Stones and Mumford & Sons. The addictive King Con depicts a variety of fringe characters, from polygamists (“Sister Wife”) to rowdy Amish teens (“Run Rumspringa”) to pop-culture obsessives (“Velvet Elvis”).

Check it out if you like: Women who subvert shiny mainstream sounds to darker ends, such as Lily Allen, Lykke Li, and Gemma Ray.