Rockin' The Suburbs

Well, earlier today I posted about (amongst other things) my acquisition of the newest Ben Folds' album. Seeing as how I'm yet to review a Ben Folds' album, I figured I'd start at the beginning. Ben Folds was, as the name may suggest, part or the somewhat successful band Ben Folds Five. When the Ben Folds Five broke up in 2000, Ben Folds began a solo career. Released in September 2001, Rockin' The Suburbs was his first solo album. Ben Folds is probably my favourite solo American musician and I can't say enough how much people should actually check out his music. In fact, go to Youtube right now and just search for music by Ben Folds. Don't worry, I'll wait....

Enjoy? Anyway, here is my review of Rockin' The Suburbs by Ben Folds:

1. Annie Waits
Opening with a strong beat, Annie Waits is a strange song, as the strong beat changes into a slower tune...and back again. Finally it breaks into a much more powerful sound. The first critique I have of this song is the drum beat which seems unnecessary and somewhat artificial. It irritates me just a bit but Annie Waits is still a great song. Lyrically, the song can either mean nothing or a lot, depending on how you think it was supposed to be heard. Taking at little value, it could be made to tell the story of a woman being a bit stuck up towards the singer. Looking a bit deeper, the song seems to be about a lonely woman who is alone after years of waiting for the perfect friend or perfect partner, eventually just finding comfort in being alone and living in a fixed routine. Anyway, near the middle of the song another truly pointless beat enters. It somewhat devalues the entire song. It could have been a touching song about a woman who overcomes her loneliness, but instead sounds like something that is nice enough, but didn't quite evolve from the 90's. Now, I want to try something new for the new year. I'm going to start giving songs individual ratings. I would really like some feedback on whether or not I should or if I should use a different system to do so. At the moment, I'm just going to go out of 100.
71/100 - Good enough, but not that great from Ben Folds.

2. Zak & Sara
The one thing that stands out about this song is it has a great beat and vocals. The whole song is a fantastic mess of lyrics, piano and drums. The lyrics, however, are a touch confusing. The basic premise is clear Zak (without a C) and Sara (without an H) are a young couple, both into music in someway or another. Where it gets confusing is where it's referring to Sara "seeing the future", talking about working in submarines or pale English faces. I honestly don't know if this is a reference to modern times, something to do with the 90's or Ben Folds just being weird. The lyrics are a touch dark, but the rhythm and vocals are near impeccable.
81/100 - A great sound, but a bit too short and I wish the lyrics had told more of a story.

3. Still Fighting It
Written for his first son, Louis, Still Fighting it is a little slower (for the most part) and a little more sentimental. This is one of the singles released from the album. The lyrics are sweet, talking about the future Ben's son will have, the memories they'll have together and just the fact growing up isn't easy. That's well and good, but the vocals and music don't quite do it for me. The music is just a touch too all over the place for a slower song. The vocals are OK, but a touch sub-par. Nice enough, but only just single material.
60/100 - Nice. But just nice. No more, no less. Also, it slows down the pace of the album a touch. First or last, I would say.

4. Gone
How I think Annie Waits should have gone. The drum s fit in perfectly, the vocals are strong and tell a bit of a story. The piano is also very well placed. The song starts out strong, belting out both lyrics and piano, slowing down briefly only to work back up into the previous level of passion in the song. Superbly done. The lyrics of the song, in their simplest form, can be summed by saying Gone is a song about letting things go, even if you don't quite think you are ready to let them go (in my opinion anyway).
88/100- Superb, if just a touch too short.

5. Fred Jones Part 2
This is the saddest song I have heard in quite a while. The lyrics tell of a man who has devoted a large portion of his life to a newspaper. This song begins as a man comes into his office and tells him it's time to leave. Fred, with his few belongings from the office leaves the building. Despite this man having spent many years here, no-one working here knows his name and no-one stops to commemorate the time he spent here. Great imagery, fantastic piano accompaniment to varying vocals, rising and falling as Fred Jones moods change and his mind works.
88/100 - A fantastic song, although a bit of a downer for this early in the album, especially directly after Gone. This would have had more of an impact if preceded by a slower song, I think.

6. The Ascent Of Stan
This song contains the best piano on the the entire album, in my opinion, and among the best vocals. The lyrics basically tell the story of a man (Stan) who was a very dedicated "hippie" in previous years. He has now "sold out" and is at the top of a corporation, having left his beliefs behind. The song comments repeatedly about how he now understands the people he didn't understand in his youth. The lines:
"You wanted revolution,
now you're the institution,
How's it feel to be the man?"
are perfect for summing up the entire song. Please note: I am yet to mention Peter Garrett. Whoops! I just did. I'll leave it to Wikipedia to answer any related questions to that name.
92/100 - Just plain awesome.

7. Losing Lisa.
I always seem to forget this song, but I don't think that's a reflection on the song. The piano is firs class, especially during the chorus, the vocals are perfect, especially during the chorus. The lyrics are basically the conventional lively Ben Folds break-up song, with a little less anger than Song For The Dumped (I'll probably get to it soon, it's on another album). The constant mention of "Black tears falling down her face" is, while memorable, always disturbing in a way I don't quite understand. I just don't get it. Clear tears are normal. Blue tears are comedic (as they are normally in cartoons), red tears are just wrong, as with any form of blood coming from the eyes, but I honestly don't know what someone with black tears would be feeling. I just don't know.
80/100 -Catchy, but pointless. Meh. You can't win them all.

8. Carrying Cathy
Combined with the previous song, it would appear Mr. Folds is a fan of alliteration. Combined with Annie Waits, it would appear Mr. Folds knows a fair few "interesting" women. The piano is pleasantly slowed and the vocals, whilst not the best of the album, are more than reasonable and the lyrics (as the name suggests) is about a rather emotionally frail and generally dependent woman, who eventually dies, making the phrase "carrying" Cathy far more literal, as someone says during the funeral, while Cathy's family carries the coffin, "It's always been this way."
82/100- Not my kind of song, but it does what it set out to do and I honestly can't fault that.

9. Not The Same.
This song has the best beat of the album, accompanied by some of the strangest lyrics. Depending on the mood you're in when you hear the song, it's either about the events in life that permanently change us or it may just be about a "unique" individual, who is always changing her ideas. The backing vocals are really well used during this song and the drums aren't too bad either. There isn't much bad I can say about this song, and that in itself is surely a good sign.
83/100 - Good, but a little strange.

10. Rockin' The Suburb
This song is a great song, spoofing the way in which many songs about the unfairness of life and major problems are written by and marketed to those with the least problems and easiest lives. This is understandably one of the singles off the album. Although I enjoy the lyrics and music, the vocals aren't the best they've been. I do enjoy listening to this song in the uncensored version on CD. The Youtube version that has been censored really shits me, but I do understand why. I just wish they had an uncensored version optional. Still, a good song and probably the "loudest" on the album, sounding the closest to rock Ben Folds ever has or probably ever will.
89/100 - You had me at spoofing whining middle class kids.

11. Fired.
Just a crazy little song with incredible piano, great vocals and a catchy chorus. Not much I can say about the lyrics though. Most of them are just the line "Everybody here was fired." What more can I say?
86/100 - I have no words. Just listen to Ben go a little crazy.

12. The Luckiest.
The slowest song on the entire album, although the lyrics aren't as depressing as Fred Jones Part 2. The song is essentially a love song which Ben is clearly putting everything into. The piano is the focus of the song, making sound as only Ben Folds can. The lyrics are sweet, spinning extended situations which eventually boil down to being in the right place at the right time. The one thing I would like to go with this song is a real video. There are a few fan-made ones out there, but I think it would be very interesting to see how Ben Folds would accompany this song visually.
83/100 - A lovely song, although a little slow for my tastes. I think I really am not the kind of person to review this song. I think if I appreciated this song as it should be appreciated, I would be crying right now. Perhaps it's for the best.

Anyway, that was Ben Folds first solo album. I know I was rather harsh on it, but considering I'm now only reviewing albums I actually paid for, I'm going to have to be a little bit tougher. This album isn't Ben Folds best, but is far from his worst. None of my favourite songs of his are to be found on this album, but they average out a decent album. If I had a calculator on hand, I would average the scores for the individual songs, but screw that.
87/100 - This album is a tame roller-coaster. It quickly varies between happy, sad and back again, but all the songs carry Ben Folds mark. It's easy to tell Ben didn't quite completely know what he was doing and some songs were a touch forced, but in the end he produced an album which is definitely in my top 10, and probably my 3rd favourite by Ben Folds.

H. Rourke