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(More customer reviews)I've been a Ben Folds fan since the beginning of his career, and I've got to say that this release is by far his most "different." I mean that in the best way possible. As most of you know, Nick Hornby wrote the lyrics this time around. I personally think Ben's lyrics are just as good as Hornby's, but if there's anything a guest lyricist's contribution did, it had Ben approach songwriting from a totally different perspective. I think Ben is a great songwriter in every single way, but he's been doing it for 16 + years with the same formula. Having to write music around someone else's words seems to have given Ben a reason to really perfect the music. He said it himself in recent reviews; he felt like he had to live up to the quality of the lyrics being sent to him. You can tell extra attention was given to these songs, so that they could reflect exactly what Hornby was trying to get across. I've got to say, it made Ben's music sound fresher than it has in years (and I don't think he's put out a bad one yet.)
This is, however, an album you need to pay a lot of attention to if you want to get the most out of it. Rockin the Suburbs has some great lyrics, but you don't need to listen to the words to have fun with it. The songs are bouncy and catchy, which is something that can't be said as much about Lonely Avenue. The songs aren't quite as instantly catchy, but I would not put that against the "quality" of the songs at all. It's just a bit more of a grower, mainly because you have to pay close attention to how the music plays off the words to really FEEL the album like you're supposed to. Once it clicks, you're going to find yourself lost in this record. It's the most stylistic thing he's done since Reinhold Messener, way back in 99'.
I reviewed the normal version simply because I knew that this was going to be where most people would be reading a review, but I must tell you that the deluxe version is the definitive version. It comes with lots of pictures, short Hornby stories, full lyrics, all wrapped up in a little hard cover book, sized like a thick cd. It's really a fun package, and its worth the extra money.
This is just a well balanced, stylish, catchy, deep, and intelligent record that should please anyone who can respect this genre of music. This is probably a one-and-done collaboration, so I've got to give it to Ben and Nick. This is a well earned five star review.
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Lonely Avenue'It has its own voice, which comes from some place between the two of us,' says author, Oscar-nominated screenwriter and now lyricist Nick Hornby of 'Lonely Avenue,' his unique, words-and-music collaboration with Ben Folds. Singer-songwriter-pianist Folds puts it more bluntly: 'I felt like I'd found something rare on eBay or something. Nick should have done it before but it's his first big effort and I feel like I really scored here.' Hornby first attracted the attention of music fans - and artists like Folds - with his brilliant, bittersweet 1995 novel 'High Fidelity,' about an obsessive record collector's crumbling personal life that was translated into a cult classic film starring John Cusack and even a stage musical. Hornby has been an admirer since attending Folds' first U.K. shows. In fact, Hornby devoted an entire essay in his 2002 collection of music-themed short pieces, 'Songbook,' to Folds, praising the 'sophisticated simplicity' of Folds' writing. The London-based Hornby supplied the words for 'Lonely Avenue,' a project sparked by the long-distance friendship that developed after Hornby published 'Songbook.' Nashville resident Folds then set Hornby's lyrics to music in the vintage, orchestra-sized studio he'd rescued from oblivion and has been working in for the last ten years. The hero of 'High Fidelity' would have approved: Folds conceived the album as a vinyl release and recorded everything live in analog to two-inch tape, finally mastering the disc at Abbey Road. Joining Folds in the studio at various points were his own band, a string section, and legendary arranger Paul Buckmaster, who, as Folds describes him, is 'the person who makes you feel the goose bumps at the chorus and you don't know why.' (Those are Buckmaster's string charts, for example, on Elton John's 'Tiny Dancer' and The Rolling Stones' 'Moonlight Mile.') 'Lonely Avenue' offers equal measures of humor and pathos in often deceptively cheerful songs. Folds literally gives voice to Hornby's endearingly mixed up, lovelorn characters, who come across as sympathetic even at their most hapless. An aging pop singer has to endlessly and agonizingly reprise his one hit, a paean to a woman he left years ago, to the fans who still attend his shows ('Belinda'). A mother deliberately avoids a stunning view of New Years Eve fireworks as she ministers to her seriously ill child in a London hospital ('Picture Window'). Hornby reconstructs the world of crippled, Brill Building-era songwriter Doc Pomus circa 1962 ('Doc Pomus'), and imagines, with unexpected tenderness, the moment when Alaskan teenager Levi Johnston discovered he'd impregnated the newly announced vice-presidential candidate's daughter, Bristol Palin. The result is an 11-song set that's as playful as it is soul-stirring, and more than a little magical. Says Folds, 'With some albums the comet goes by and you grab it while it's passing and everything you do has some comet dust on it. This is one of those albums.' Also available in a Deluxe Edition that includes the album on CD, four short stories by Hornby, and 15 images by acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz, all in a hardbound, 152-page book.
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