Singer-songwriter Ben Kweller wears his influences on his sleeve throughout his third disc. There are shades of Bob Dylan on the folky title track, the Rolling Stones on the country-tinged ballad "Believer" and Paul Westerberg on the ragged garage-rocker "Ann Disaster." But while Kweller, 22, may not score many points for originality, he has learned well from those masters and displays an appealing affection for their retro sounds. Indeed, there is a lo-fi quality to the production of On My Way that sweetly evokes an era gone by. And with Kweller's solid songcraft, there's not a bad tune in the bunch. He reveals a playful wit on the quirky, tempo-shifting "Hospital Bed," slyly singing, "I wish I was sleeping in your hospital bed/ Give me some time to get on your mind." Meanwhile, the charming, chugging "My Apartment," a Ryan Adamsesque alt-country ditty, is an open love letter to Kweller's Brooklyn home: "I like it here in my small space/ New York's the place where the sidewalks know my face."
