It was about one year ago that I discovered Ben Folds,
\nspecifically his 2001 solo effort,
\nRockin’ The Suburbs<\/i>. Since that point, he has released a
\nsolo live album as well as a few EPs, but
\nSongs For Silverman<\/i> is his first true album in four years.
\nThe question is; was it worth the wait?<\/p>\n
Don’t get me wrong,
\n\u2026Suburbs<\/i> was a terrific album, but its sound was not
\nas fleshed out as it had been when Folds played with the Five. That
\none, minor quibble has been rectified, as Folds returned to the
\ntrio format for
\nSongs For Silverman<\/i>. The result is a harder, more powerful
\nsound resembling those great, early albums. Check out where “You To
\nThank” provides glimpses of “Fair” off of Whatever And Ever Amen,
\nor the Jackson Browne-sounding ballad “Give Judy My Notice.” That
\nsecond track was already recorded for one of the Folds’ EP’s, but
\nhere the band shows off not only their group harmonies, but a
\ndefinite sense of “connectedness.” These guys have bonded, and it’s
\nreflected in how each member works with the other. Hopefully, Folds
\nhas decided to stick with this band for a while; it would serve him
\nwell.<\/p>\n
Some critics have said this is Fold’s most Billy Joel\/Elton
\nJohn-esque album so far in his career, but I beg to differ. Yes,
\nthe influences of Joel can be heard in Fold’s narrative lyrics,
\nespecially on such tracks like “Gracie.” There’s not too much
\ndifferent between that track and Joel’s “Lullaby (Goodnight My
\nAngel). Melodically, Elton John’s music seems to have guided Folds
\nas well. “I’ve Landed” (especially the string version) could have
\nbeen taken from a number of early John albums.<\/p>\n
What Folds accomplishes is more a synthesis of his two idols,
\nrather than derivative slop. Of course, Ben still manages to create
\nhis own unique sound with each passing album. Take “Prison Food”
\nfor example; Joel and John never sounded like this, instead one
\ncould swear they were listening to Pink Floyd (Folds himself
\nacknowledges this on the DVD side of this Dual Disc). “Jesusland,”
\na tale of the Bible Belt, glides along smoothly while imposing a
\nsense of sereneness fitting given the subject matter, as well
\nsporting some absolutely gorgeous harmonies.<\/p>\n
Lyrically I have always been in awe of Ben Folds; I’m not going
\nto call his ability Springsteen-esque but he can create characters
\nso well. They aren’t clich\u00e9d, idealistic expressions of the
\nartist, but rather just normal people like you and me (well, maybe
\njust you). “Late,” Folds’ tribute to Elliot Smith, is not some
\nsappy, melodramatic ode to a dead artist, it’s just a
\nmatter-of-fact expression of the feelings Folds felt when he heard
\nthe news. To me, this take on the subject of death is infinitely
\nmore moving than, say, some of the songs that were wrote in honor
\nof John Lennon after his death. (Special Note: If you are
\ninterested, check out Elton John’s tribute to Lennon, “Empty
\nGarden.” For those of who you hated “Candle in the Wind 97,” this
\nshould be quite a treat.)<\/p>\n
In answer to the question that closes the introduction, the
\nanswer is a qualified “Yes.” Folds has returned to form, though
\nagain
\n\u2026Suburbs<\/i> was by no means a poor effort. This is a
\nmature work from an immature kid who has finally grown up. Folds
\nalways made that immature bit work, and it’s a testament to his
\nskills that his music is just as effective now as it was ten years
\nago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":27051,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[7015],"rating":[5613],"class_list":["post-38377","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-ben-folds","rating-rating-a-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27051"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38377"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}