Lonely Avenue

Well, it's been a while since I've done a review - or anything- on this blog, mainly due to the fact I spent  fair deal of April a good distance away from a computer with internet access. This review is going to be the third Ben Folds album I've done, after "Rockin' The Suburbs" from 2001 and "Ben Folds Five" from 1995. This album is going to be a bit different.

"Lonely Avenue" was released in 2010, with the lyrics not written by Ben Folds but by the British writer Nick Hornby (the only work I've read by him is "High Fidelity", which I actually read after purchasing this album last month). The obvious end result is a modern classic, which was almost certain to fail commercially, just due to the nature of the project. The problem in my opinion is that both of the artists are not mainstream. This is hardly a bad thing, but the fact that a larger percentage when asked "Who comes to mind when you hear the phrase "High Fidelity"?" will say "Jack Black" than "Nick Hornby", as well as a larger proportion answering the question "Who is your favourite American musician with the first name "Ben"?" with Harper than Folds. There was just not enough star power with too much talent and heart.

There really isn't much to say about this album, really. Two singles were taken off it (according to a skint Wikipedia article, so don't take my or their words for that particular fact), which I will mention when I get to them.

1. A Working Day
This song actually starts off the same way as "Contact High" by Architecture In Helsinki (similarities end there), which always throws me off. The actual song starts off with a very strange electo-esque beat, almost like someone was testing the equipment.The piano and vocals kick in right after, both of which are of course brilliant. Before I start talking about anything else, I must say this song is tied with tracks 3 and 11 as my favourites. Having said that, this song suffers from one major problem. It is laughably short. This song goes for 1 minute and 51 seconds. The next shortest song (track 10) goes for over 3 minutes. I just don't know why you would not extend such an enjoyable, catch tune. The beat remains a strange, but not unpleasant mix of techno and piano for the first half of this song. Suddenly, the pace switches to a completely different rate and the guitar (I think) kicks in, sounding like a completely different song, a much more Foldsian sound. The lyrics are really good, giving both regular and meta examples of how public opinion shifts so quickly. The first minute, the tune is upbeat, the lyrics describing an individual on the top of their (unspecified) game who is bagging out competition and reviewers. The song then switches to the same character wailing "It's over! It's over!", public opinion having shifted against him. The switch between the two moods and sounds is clearly (to me at least) a reflection on the rapidity and unexpectedness of shirts in public opinion. The song ends with the character having come to terms with his situation with the line "Hey, it's a working day." I end the review of this song with my favourite quote from the entire album:
"Some guy on the net says I suck, and he should know. He's got his own blog."

I may change the tag line from "Because all the names that made sense were taken" to that. An all round interesting song which definitely could have used some more length. A good, if somewhat misleading, intro to the album.

88/100

2. Picture Window
The pace and mood slow down to a near standstill with this song. The basic concept of this song is a mother standing at her sick son's bedside trying to get through New Year's Eve with the mixed emotions of hope and sadness, trying to enjoy the celebration but also trying not to become too hopeful. The music is beautiful, with what certainly sounds like a good portion of a strings section in the background. The vocals are terrific as always. The only way I feel I can talk about these lyrics in regards to Hornby is as if it was the blurb for a book. Would I read it? No, no I wouldn't. But I am clearly not the intended audience for this song. This song is almost ruthlessly targeted at evoking and preying on emotions. It is more than possible this is based on a real story, but I feel almost awkward at listening to this song. That can either be seen as lyrics that truly encapsulate the emotion, or lyrics that are far too intrusive into a mindset to enjoy.

A decent song, which is improved by the use of the line "Hope is a bastard" in the chorus. I've never heard that in a song before.

70/100

3. Levi Johnston's Blues
As the title may suggest, this is a song about Levi Johnston (that guy who in the words of Hornby "knocked up the VP  nominee's [Palin] daughter"). That's right, living proof that rednecks are not limited by temperature (although Palin herself pretty much also proves this). As I'm not American and really have no investment in US politics, I'll avoid the topic for the rest of this song. Anyway, the perceptive amongst my readers (i.e. Myself, as both of the other people who will ever read this are this far down the page and are yet to realise this blog DOES NOT POST COMMUNIST PROPAGANDA.) may recall that I place track 3 as one of my favourites. This may seem odd, but the song certainly puts quite a lot of effort into documenting the most interesting aspects of a rather uninteresting man, making him almost protaganistic. The song shows how he had to be put through quite a tough few months. Waking up and being informed of possibly the most important event of his life by the press, being told he's going to get married without even talking things over with Bristol. Overall, I like this song because of the changing tones and styles, both emotional and musical, going from slow and smooth, to quicker and irritated until finally loud, angry and shouting. I like it because of the way it also explores how an average person (and they don't get much more average than Johnston) can be trapped in a situation without really understanding it or with any way of getting out.

The message being: Wear a condom or you might catch media attention, which when exacerbated can eventually lead to a bored Australian writing a post about an American singing a song written by a Brit about the son-in-law of a right-wing Alaskan vice-presidential candidate. Just wear a rubber, for everyone's mental health.

89/100

4. Doc Pomus
 Well, this is certainly the most interesting song of the album, considering I've had to listen to it three times, as well as multiple readings of the lyrics and several Wikipedia pages before I feel even remotely confident in stating anything in this post. Anyway, the name and the content of the song are both references to famed Jewish-American songwriter Doc Pomus. The name of this album is actually a reference to one of his well known tracks, and I would hardly be surprised if upon further research I realised that there were more references to the man and his work littered throughout the album. Anyway, this song musically is a little bit dull in the verses, although lyrically interesting. Where this song really works is the chorus. Folds' vocals are absolutely fantastic here, having the feel of almost a television theme song.  The lyrics are of course about the life and style of Doc Pomus, and are set out in such a way that you are instantly drawn into the story of such a man.

Worth listening to just for when Folds starts singing a series of gunshots. Don't ask, just listen.

85/100

5. Your Dogs
This song is the perfect demonstration on why you should not judge anything on the company it keeps. This song happens to be the theme for "$h*! My Dad Says" (spelt with a dollar sign...just like Ke$ha. Who says you can't pick shit by name?). That TV show with less premise than a Birds Of Tokyo song and Shatner (y'know...the guy who did a cover of "Common People" by Pulp. Seriously. I never watched any show he starred in. That's the only thing he's done which I've enjoyed.) Anyway, the actual song (holding just as ironic a position on this blog as "A Working Day") is about judgement. The main character is a likable, self-important family man who is trying to make his unruly neighbour change his ways, being able to accept everything about him except for his dogs. The music is good, but nothing which is better than usual for a Folds song. The way the protagonist is characterised is easily the most interesting part of this song, as well as the fact it ended up as a theme song. WHY?

If you listen to the song enough, and imagine the guy gives the same lecture day after day, you actually start to sympathise more with the neighbour with the dogs.

76/100

6. Practical Amanda
This is where it becomes clear that Folds did not write these songs. considering his previously noted affection for alliteration with women's names (see Rockin' The Suburbs, which contains the tracks Carrying Cathy and Losing Lisa) I would completely expect Amazing, Average, Awesome or Angry Amanda instead. The song is simply about a very caring, hard working woman as seen from the viewpoint of husband/boyfriend. The only really interesting thing is the implied metaphor of comparing a wreck of a house to a wreck of a man and how Amanda managed to repair them both. Interesting. The only problem I have with this song is that it is so jilting slow. Songs can be slow in tempo, story, development or style, but this song literally had me thinking "Just spit the bloody words out!" This is not the right way to make a sad, slow song. The lyrics are fine, if nothing special, but the lyrics just seem to be so drawn out.

If I play it at double speed, it might be far more interesting.

64/100

7. Claire's Ninth
Again, these songs seem to save all the awesome until the chorus. I have no problem with that, as I bought the CD, but not many people would stay tuned with other media. Anyway, the lyrics are about the divorced parents of nine year old Claire, who refuse to get along and ruin her birthday. I think the premise is clever, but the best part is the character of Claire, who narrates the events. It has all the hallmarks of an actual child's recollection: easily embarrassed by parents, the most offensive insult she uses is "dumb" and she still doesn't judge the parents too harshly despite the fact several choice terms to do just that are springing into the minds of listeners at several points. A pretty damn good song.

Apparently based on a piece of work by Hornby. Ah, the joys of self-plagiarism.

84/100

8. Password
No matter what this review ends up consisting of, know that I really like this song. OK, the basic premise is an examination of a couples relationship...pretty standard for Folds...while the man is attempting to guess his girlfriend's password. Turns out she was seeing another man, and he was the password Hornby claimed it was "Suspicious Minds" for the 21st Century. It's a really good song, but I wouldn't go that far. This song really just sounds like Folds collaborated with Flight Of The Concords or Tripod rather than Hornby. The gimmick of spelling out each word as he explains the origin is a really interesting one, but it is hard to get past the line "You think it's weird, but it's not." I'm sorry, but the second you include that line, you've crossed another into the territory of affectionate parody of music. Still has a good beat, but I can't say its very suited to Folds' voice.

I've got to say...if you're trying to hack into your partner's computer because you think that they're betraying your trust, they were probably in the right. Also, is this a home computer? Why would you put a password on it unless you had something to hide? Maybe he had a point...

81/100

9. From Above
The first single off the album and definitely the best known. The concept was a rejected movie script and it shows. Basically, the song follows two people who are "meant to be together" but never actually meet, each going on to live happy lives with other people. I sort of get why they rejected this as a movie idea, as the ending wouldn't be definitive enough for a rom-com audience ( or a rom-anything audience). The song has interesting ideas. It sort of touches of destiny or fate, but then claims that what was supposed to happen didn't happen, thus meaning it actually wasn't destiny or fate. I've actually gotten into a pretty heated debate over whether what happens was meant to happen or not (during which I broke Godwin's Rule so many times that it might never recover), so I won't bring it up here as well. The thing about this song is that it just isn't what I like about Ben Folds' music. On occasion he gets too emotional or in his own head, but then he gives a witty insult or a fantastic piano solo or chorus and the matter is dropped. If High Fidelity is anything to go by, Nick Hornby has made his career living in his own head, with almost nothing to break it up. I'll be completely honest. When my radio made the announcement during 2010 that Ben Folds was releasing a new album, I was over the moon. Then they played this track. I was well and truly under the moon pretty quick. I'm not saying Hornby is a bad lyricist, but thins song, pretty much on its own, does not work with Ben Folds.

The flip book style video is kind of cool, though.

78/100

10. Saskia Hamilton
The pop song of the album and also the second single. God, they just went crazy with this. Basically about a poetry nerd falling in love with a woman after seeing her name written down. Then, if the musical style it to be believed, takes a hallucinogenic agent. This song is just fucking weird. I really don't know what to say about it. It's neither good nor bad...just off the wall nuts.

Saskia Hamilton is a real woman, a poet. I would absolutely love to know how she felt about this song.

77/100

11. Belinda
The absolute saddest song on the entire album, as well as the final. The song is about a musician who becomes successful by writing a song about his girlfriend, Belinda. He then promptly cheats on her with another woman and Belinda leaves him. The new woman becomes bored and leaves him soon after. The man writes no more successful songs, and ends up having to repeatedly perform Belinda at all of his concerts, each repetition reminding him of the biggest mistake he ever made...night in, night out, never being able to forget that you betrayed the woman you loved and you can never have her back. Constantly singing a song that brings you only pain in order to pay the rent. A special level of hell I cannot even remotely forcing my worst enemies to endure. The music is fantastic, actually making us believe that there is a song within a song, and also making the best use of Ben Folds' voice. A terrifically disturbing song that really should have been the first and possibly only single.

A great way of ending the album.

90/100

Overall, this album deserves more credit than it receives, but not as much as the majority of the other Ben Folds albums. Not bad at all, just not the best, which can hardly be expected every release. I just really think there were better choices for the singles.

87/100

H. Rourke