Music: New single from Cory Branan

Cory Branan: he's a very Bad Man

Hotly tipped solo artist channels “Paul Westerberg and the boys jamming along to E Street Band demo tapes” vibe on new track.

Track: Cory Branan – Badman

File Under: ‘Westerberg-meets-Waits-Mellencamp-and-Marah’

The Classic Rock office has been thrilling to the sounds of Mutt, the new album from Cory Branan, for the past few weeks. If you think that Springsteen’s latest is a bit over-produced, or that Gaslight Anthem are in danger of making the same album over and over, the Branan could be the guy for you.

Mutt sees him go from ‘Mats-like ramshackle punk to Tom Waitsy trashcan Sinatra ballads, slick country and late-night acoustic shuffles. Says his PR: “While his music tips its hat to road-map influences from Motown to Mellencamp, the Delta bluesmen to folk pickers of 60s Greenwich Village, the united result is a singular sound spurred on by years spent on tour honing something rare that is altogether its own.”

Bad Man revisits the classic high-school romance between bad boy and good girl (“They think I’m a bad man, and they’re right/I’m a bad man/Baby, I think a bad man would do you good”) with Born To Run swagger and great lines to match (“Soon everyone will know we were never cool/It’ll be all over the entire middle school”).

Listen to Badman here before Cory Branan comes to visit – UK tour starts 4th June in Southampton.