A CD Held Hostage
After holding it hostage for about a year or two, my friend finally gave me back my Ben Folds Rockin’ the Suburbs CD. Man, what a great album! I’ve missed you, little fella.This one just barely nudges out Whatever and Ever Amen as my favorite Ben Folds album. There’s a lot to like. The melodies soar. He is in the direct line of polished pop songwriters like The Beatles, Burt Bacharach, and The Carpenters. (I have a feeling it’s the piano. The layout of the piano probably tends to inspire more heady harmonies than the guitar, which is just a replacement for a penis, isn’t it?) Anyway, the production is pretty grand, with all kinds of Pro Tools subtleties, multi-tracked vocals and interesting keyboard sounds. I think Ben Folds has the ability to create brilliant arrangements that keep an easily bored listener like myself engaged. Just his back-up vocals alone are more sophisticated than 90% of the tripe you hear anywhere else.
The man is gifted.
posted by Mike @ 10:16 AM
1 Comments:
This is one of my favorite albums. It was the second Ben Folds album I'd heard (Whatever and Ever Amen was the first one), but it was the one that made me a Ben Folds fan.
What's interesting to me is that the title of the album sounds like it's going to be Ben "rockin'" with his "funny" lyrics, but in reality, the melodies are incredibly gentle. You wouldn't think that you'd pull out a Ben Folds album when you're feeling introspective, but I do.
The album had me at "Good morning, son......I am a bird...." and at that point, I was captivated. I'm a sucker for sad, understated vocals, even if as a general rule I can take or leave lyrics. As time has gone by, the album's signature for me has become that piano riff that opens up "Carrying Cathy."
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