HORNBY TURNS OUT TO BE FOLDS' BERNIE TAUPIN
Ben Folds' last long-player, Way to Normal (later remastered, reordered, expanded, and improved on the quasi-release, Stems and Seeds), found the master ivory-smith stretching out past his piano roots into new territory with mixed results. Lonely Avenue—his latest in collaboration with author turned lyricist, best-selling British novelist Nick Hornby—is a wonderful return to the hooky, piano-based, smart power-pop that made Folds a college campus favorite.
On Lonely Avenue, Folds' challenges himself by composing new tunes set to the words of his unlikely lyricist/collaborator (known to many for the novel, "High Fidelity," later adapted into a fine film starring John Cusack and breakout-star Jack Black). "High Fidelity," is an unabashed homage to Hornby's own love of music wrapped in a traditional romantic comedy. In Hornby, Folds finds a perfect collaborator; one who allows Folds to compositionally stretch in terms of melody and structure, and to approach songwriting from new angles and perspectives. Although Folds is a fine lyricist himself, his biggest weakness (if you can call it that) is a tendency to be a bit "on the nose" with his words; light on metaphor and generally leaving little room for interpretation. "Give me my money back, you bitch/I want my money back and don't forget my black T-shirt," says his appropriately titled, "Song for the Dumped," from 1997's Whatever And Ever Amen.
In the character-driven, Lonely Avenue (named after a song composed by the legendary Doc Pomus, one of the many colorful characters illustrated over the course of the album), Hornby succinctly and effectively communicates layers of subtleties and emotion, often employing very few words. Many of the songs/stories have an almost Rod Serling-esque emotional "zap" at the very end; a line or two that suddenly shifts everything that proceeded it more sharply into focus. Such is the case in "Claire's Ninth," about a young girl's ninth birthday, ruined when her separated parents reunite the family of three for pizza and ice cream. While the majority of the song is seen from the eyes of the child, horrified by the staged normalcy and just wanting the day to pass, in the final seven words, we finally see the day from the parents' point-of-view, serving as a sad memorial to a failed marriage, "It used to be our birthday too." Or "Working Day," (the only outwardly autobiographical song on the album), which juxtaposes the daily insecurities of a struggling working artist with the exaggerated arrogance and bravura needed to combat the intensely powerful, daily feelings of creative impotency. Until the final stanza, it almost comes off as a character study of a schizophrenic, but Hornby quickly brings it into focus, "Hey, hey... It's a working day." It's not surprising that most of the songs carry similar literary qualities.
On the outward, the song "Picture Window" serves as a tale of a sick child and her mother searching for optimism at the dawn of a New Year. Upon hearing the chorus, one must wonder, with it's repeated use of the word, "Hope"—a word still echoing so resonantly as a one-word campaign slogan—if it's an allegory for the depression and angst facing the nation as the cold realities of the post-election Obama era set-in, "You know what Hope is? Hope is a bastard, Hope is a liar. A cheat and a tease."
The most famous character profiled on the album is that of teenage Levi Johnston, the unwillingly (in the song, at least) recruited fiancée of Bristol Palin (daughter of recent Vice-POTUS nominee Sarah Palin). While the chorus of "Levi Johnston's Blues" is intentionally comedic, quoting verbatim from Johnston's Facebook page, "I'm a fuckin' Redneck, I live to hang out with the boys, play some hockey, do some fishin’ and kill some moose. I like to shoot the shit, do some chillin' I guess. You fuck with me and I’ll kick your ass," Hornby treats him as a sympathetic victim of circumstance, "And when I try to tell them I'm 18 years old, they say 'Levi its too late, you've got to do as you're told.'" The song itself has no less than three melodic hooks; one consisting of the bass/piano motif found in the verse, another—easily the most memorable—in the melody of the pre-chorus/bridge and interestingly, the least catchy of the triumvirate is found in the Facebook-quoting chorus itself. The unconventional structure is a perfect example of how working off of someone else's lyrics sheet pushes Folds into unpredictable territory. The results are consistently refreshing and reward repeated listening.
Ben Folds returns to many of the textures that he experimented with on Way to Normal and his earlier all-synthetic instrumental one-off, Fear of Pop. Where Way to Normal's tended to jar the listener with its synthetics at times, making it seem on-the-whole, less cohesive, Lonely Avenue is unified. Much of this can be owed to the delicate and beautiful string arrangements of Paul Buckmaster, which adorn five of the album's 11 tracks. It's not surprising that these string arrangements also recall Elton John, as it's Buckmaster's string charts that also grace John's "Tiny Dancer" (ironically once covered by Folds), as well as countless other hits of the past forty years. Although other musicians are employed throughout the album, Lonely Avenue (again ironically, given the shared above the title credit—something that Elton John's Bernie Taupin was never awarded) comes off as the most one-man-band affair of all of Ben Folds' albums.
At the time of this writing, three bonus tracks are associated with the release of this album, and while they are essential for the completionist, their B-side like status is deserved. (Two are original songs, while a third is an alternate "pop" arrangement of "Picture Window." Two can be found on iTunes while the strongest of the three, "Christian Life," is an Amazon exclusive download.)
Those who are familiar with the previous work of Nick Hornby know that he is a true music-junkie, a man who clearly regards musicians as divine. It remains to be seen whether the Folds/Hornby collaboration continues past Lonely Avenue; however, for the time being, Hornby can say that for a moment—with a little help from a friend—he stood alongside his heroes.
9 out of 10 stars—David Glassner
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