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On his latest "solo" effort, Ben Folds offers less of an album than a study in quirky, quirky songs. In the lead up to the completion of Way to Normal fans are told/reminded about his latest divorce, but then it is suggested we shouldn't actually think about it when picking apart each song bit-by-hidden-message-bit. Folds was quoted in a press release as saying this record is "really about me being free, which is why it feels cathartic and expressive. It's about me coming back to being myself...the songs are not topical. I was not interested in making a record about the D-word. I got all that stuff out of my system on the last record which was deliberately stoic".
"Cathartic and expressive" I honestly didn’t get much of, though the "slightly vengeful" and "angry" vibes came though loud (Ben Folds loud) and clear. He mentioned the "D-word" and you’re stuck on first listen sifting through the feelings, the references, the shit. It’s almost a little like being told a house is haunted before you get given the tour; the hardwood floors and antique fireplace may be stunning, but you're just looking for ghosts.
The album starts with a fun tune called Hiroshima (and as a mate pointed out - "really though, has there ever been a fun tune called Hiroshima?") that is a live recording of a wacky song about Ben Folds taking a dive off the stage at a concert in...you know...and suffering a concussion. To begin with - those familiar piano chords and the subtitle "B-B-Benny Hit His Head" alludes to a bit of an Elton John shout out. Dissect the song as I couldn’t help doing on a third rotation and you hear whimsy fall away, exposing the anger of a guy feeling the insecurities of such confessional writing that cuts a little too close to the bone - exemplified by the lines "They're watching me, watching me, watching me fall... do you wanna know what's in my head?" As an opening track it truly is an audacious choice.
The fast and driving "Dr. Yang" comes as a fairly solid track. That fuzz bass sound and frenzied blur of feedback guiding the tune along with great rock/jazz piano and vocals that are often brash outbursts- along with the song "Errant Dog" - seems to channel out Ben Folds Five a bit. Just a bit. It’s the sound of Ben cutting loose properly again.
The subsequent songs dabble in electronic/industrial, straight-ahead rock, and the Ben Folds melodramatic, unique, not quite good but exceptionally endearing voice.. Coupled with nice harmonies, two-step drumming and a great synth lead, "The Frown Song" is a challenge put forward to keep that falsetto chorus out of your head. Lyrically adventurous ("speculate who might be fucking the guru"), it's a witty gem and live gigs would go-off with the help of this crowd-pleaser.
Lead single "You Don’t Know Me," which features Regina Specktor popping up and splitting the vocal duties is catchy and a little kooky, but really doesn’t sound like a Ben Folds song (and it isn’t the only one on the record to feel that way).There’s some alright boy-girl dialogue back and forth between Folds and Specktor who as many are aware- the ladies voice is sublime.
For me the highlight of Way to Normal is one that echoes vintage Folds, a song that would have best fit on Songs for Silverman had it not been likely to be lost. It makes a big impact here. Laid out almost like the album's centrepiece, "Cologne," and its instrumental introduction, "Before Cologne" starts with a string arrangement that builds into a haunting and emotionally charged combination and leaves you longing for more. The charm in "Cologne" is its simplicity, the sad, poignant chorus of "4...3...2...1...I’m letting you go," sings Folds (it’s that haunted house routine again...listen and you'll hear the detritus of the divorce rattling and clanging). It’s a real grower but it has to be said that it almost feels out of place with all of the other "fun" songs on the album. Starting now to wonder if knowing about Ben Folds personal status has gotten in the way and altered fairly dramatically my stance on this collection of melodies and lyrics. Couldn’t I just let the music and words dictate my reactions? Too late now I guess. I take comfort in knowing there’s more than enough fans out there sharing the same sentiment.
The lyrics in "Free Coffee" strongly reflect cover art inspiration - albeit the track itself is a quasi-techno nightmare with a synth-based sparkle but just feels unfinished and awkward. This is really the only significant departure from his better known song writing and musical styles and that straight-ahead piano-based pop.
Folds latest addition to his "Bitch trilogy" (after "Song for the Dumped" and "Bitches Ain't Shit") is with "Bitch Went Nuts." The song title tells you all you need to know about the song's content - an utterly infectious rollicking and foul-mouthed break-up anthem that conjures up images of Folds' scorned ex-girlfriends swarming to his house with "torches, scores, scores and scores to settle with themselves". Yo.
Then there’s the intro on Effington which is strangely disarming, before the song spins another yarn about life in small-town America, and final track Kylie from Connecticut is a rather thoughtful and moving ballad built around romantic piano loops and a fragile vocal.
What I know is the guy sure can create incredibly well-constructed, catchy, clever and occasionally heart-wrenching tunes and this latest offering follows on from his last album in a progressive sense for Mr Folds as his tales of love and loss. The album as a whole doesn’t blow my mind. Yet. Taking my time listening through for the balance of emotion with comedy and melancholy with fun the way Ben Folds does but so differently each time- sadly Way to Normal is taking a little more work than it should to reach it.
I’m not a dancer. I don’t really do disco. Pretty much ever. Honest. Except maybe the odd Gloria Gaynor after a half bottle of Beefeater…
Though I wasn’t concerned when all of those dancey/remixed-to-the-point-when-the-originial-was-only-identifiable-by-the-lyrics trend came about, covers of 80’s gems for new kids to sweat, sing and flaunt their tube sox and short-shorts to. I wasn’t concerned because I just didn’t go to what became like 90% of the venues in Melbourne whose DJs run through them like if they weren’t quick enough they’ll fall back through time.
Where am I going with this? The Eighties are back…again. This time it seems more genuine though. I say this because I was listening to some newly acquired tunes and when a soon to be named band came on I was concerned I must have accidentally selected the soundtrack to St. Elmo’s Fire.
Generally pleasing and somewhat enjoyable group We Are Scientists have tested their charms to get out a second album “Brain Thrust Mastery”. After getting passed randomly selected “Lethal Enforcer” the suspicion is confirmed…’80’s synths and pop-heavy production is in. argh! Scraping back again to add their familiar melodic guitars and vocal hooks in lead single “After Hours” then the harmonious ‘Altered Beasts’ and “Ghouls” might all get you on board. If this fails, ‘Impatience’ and ‘Chick Lit’ are shiny enough to be expected on a Britney spears comeback attempt rather then here. Each to their own I guess.
The whole thing is quite the oddity, but if you make it through, which I suspect many of you wont, maybe the best I can say is the Brooklyn lot have taken some of the better parts of an era where nostalgia in music makes it to the youngest of us (because we’ve all seen the 17 year old in the shop singing along to Devo’s Whip It and talking about that crazy night when her and her fellow teeny-boppers wore leg-warmers and wedge heels to a dance OMG!)
There's not much I love more than browsing in a record store, mind set on buying something, whatever, even if ones choice and judgement is based purely on an artist or bands witty/quirky selection of name, track listing or cover-art. For a student with little scratch to add well-researched sure bet winners to a collection alone- it's a bad habit but oh such a fun one too that's provided, luckily, more hits than misses.
So on this wet Autumn Melbourne day another session of skimming over genres and alphabetic tags, a dear mate of mine, "sesh00", chooses a couple of gems. His 'sure bet' was Spoon's Girls Can Tell, being on sale it's just collection hole-filling on his part (as was my pick of Herbie Hancock’s Maiden Voyage). But his grab-bag purchase, loaned to yours truly immediately afterwards to get my poor soul through a long work stint, was Grand Archives self titled gem (chosen essentially because the cover art is simple and darling, of course).
This Seattle Indie-Rock 5-piece are probably well-known to many of you fantastic audiophile nerds, but I remained clueless through the first rotation and a little confused how they went under my radar and that of my comrades (who is the first to dismiss his music tastes to anyone that will listen - but don't believe it). Here are some things that should have enlightened me earlier and convinces me these kids are right up sesh00's proverbial alley: They were chosen by Modest Mouse to support them on seven U.S West-Coast tour dates. Ron Lewis, guitarist/keyboard player, has been in a handful of great bands including on the radar Ghost Stories, and singer/guitarist Mat Brooke was formally, amongst other groups, in Band of Horses who is also signed to Sub Pop Records. The lyrics are so...argh, there's a lot of words I could use that my limited vocabulary wouldn’t do a description justice, but ahh! If any of my friends had heard the album and not shared it with me before now (it's been out since February this year!) I would have been sore over it.
