Now that the album is finished, Bennett can look forward to finishing his East Asian Studies concentration to graduate in the spring, and can also focus his energies on the Immediate Gratification Players, of which he is a member, and on the Quad Sound Studios, of which he is the president. What does the future hold for North House, besides the Quad Sound Studios Benefit Concert on Dec. 10--a second album, perhaps?

"Oh yeah, there's a lot of music coming," Bennett says assuringly. "I've probably got 50 or so guitar melodies, and we've got six or seven full songs we haven't even touched. We could do another album right now."

But all that comes later. For now, Al Bennett will be concentrating on some personal goals, one of which is the production of his friend Duane Koh's album, due out in April. The other?

"A rock opera," he says, quite seriously. "Like Swingers... but a rock opera."

The Album Itself: Two Stories

After hearing that Al Bennett '00 and Becky Warren (a Wellesley senior) produced their debut album, Two Stories, by themselves, you may approach it rather warily. How good could a couple of college students possibly sound on a self-produced album?

Any doubts you have about the quality of the production or the music itself will quickly be dispelled merely seconds into the first track, "War of the Worlds," as a harmonica wails against the festive background of shouting, murmuring voices. The songs on Two Stories incorporate everything from violins and cellos to trumpets, saxophones, and clarinets, and Bennett's seamless mixing produces a sound that's as close to perfect as you could get, especially using the Quad Sound Studios at the basement of Pforzheimer House. While it's true that at times the sound gets a tad echo-ey and the voices are a bit overwhelmed by the instrumentals, overall the quality is virtually professional.

However, it's not just the sound quality of the album itself that will amaze you; the music itself, described by North House as "the lovechild of Bonnie Raitt and Lenny Kravitz" with some Jimi Hendrix and Dave Matthews Band thrown in, is incredible. The music and lyrics for every track were written by Bennett and Warren, and Warren, especially, writes like she's a poet by calling, as in "Babylon": "You live on cigarettes and cherry brine/Your windows translucent and your broken lullaby." Bennett's smooth, relaxed voice sounds as if it were born knowing what to do on each song and his guitar skills match it perfectly: in "Chinese Cabdriver," a sexy guitar intro winds itself around you before Bennett begins to lazily croon, "Hey, Mr. Cabdriver/Say, where the hell are you takin' me?" Meanwhile, Warren performs some amazing vocal acrobatics--her wonderfully mature voice can be anything from thick and milky sweet in "Babylon" to loose and bluesy in "Goodbye Song," and her smoldering, darkly seductive "I Know What Boys Like" ensures us that, yes, Warren probably does know what boys like. Together, Bennett and Warren create a stellar first album that is surprisingly polished for a debut.

Sean Bennett

Combine the recent advances in technology and the booming Internet economy with a prodigious amount of musical talent, and you get Teenage Hysteria, the first album of Sean Bennett '01, which is currently topping the classical charts on MP3.com.

Approached by a producer from MP3.com after one of his performances during the summer, Bennett read up on the site and decided to compile a number of recordings made during his teenage years into an album. With a 30-hour repertoire of music to choose from, Bennett attempted to include a varied mix of classical music, including pieces from the contemporary, Baroque and Romantic periods.

Teenage Hysteria is not only an audio CD but can also be played as a CD-ROM which features a video presentation, photographs of Sean, the liner notes and each of the eight tracks in MP3 format. Visitors to www.mp3.com/Sean can also download samples from Teenage Hysteria. Bennett believes that downloadable music is transforming what historically has been a very political industry. "By having the option of putting out a downloadable song for most everybody, it really makes it more of a free-market system. Ultimately it will insure that those musicians who do have the most to bring to the stage will be the ones that shine," he said.