Ben Folds - 'Songs For Silverman' (Epic)
3/5
By: Thomas Hannan
Someone recently winged the idea our way that anything you find catchy you actually rather enjoy, on some level at least. Whilst there is an understandable initial reaction of repulsion, wanting to place the demented hour long sludge riffs of Sunn 0))) higher in your musical hierarchy than Kylie Minogue (get well soon...) and her pleasing pop (non?)sense for credibility's sake, there's a lot of truth in the accusation. Pop has had a bad name amongst us purists for too long. People should be allowed to admit they love things like 'Songs For Silverman' if only because they can sing along to it - because it makes them happy.
True, this line of thinking also leaves such a listener open to adoration of the Crazy Frog, but that can be the exception that proves this admittedly rather flimsy rule. Focusing on the case in hand, the strongest moments of the new Ben Folds (minus the Five) record are indeed the breeziest, the ones where even when trouble is present, it washes off the song like water off a duck's back - the happy go lucky pop songs. They start early and with promise, a splendid opener in 'Bastard' is enjoyable for its winning ways around a chorus as well as the mirth to be had listening to an American sing its title, the yank delivery often making it sound more like a nickname than an insult. I'd never have gotten away with it at my dinner table, which makes it even more of a pleasure.
We race through 'You To Thank', a weaker exercise in melody but saved by a key bashing frenzy so frantic it'll have you playing air piano upon the second listen, on to the Beach Boys aping 'Jesusland', the return of the striking tune now underpinned with a comfortable shuffle. Feet start to tap. Then it peaks with the epitome of recent Folds output, the charmingly uplifting 'Landed', Ben pining away at a simple, lilting ode to friendship in a beautifully clean falsetto. You'll want to hear thousands of people sing it in a big arena just to hear the mass attempt at the high note not come off. They'll probably all turn round, giggle and hug each other and it'll be gorgeous.
But there's more to life than happiness. You can't aim for it all the time. When you do, you either sound derivative, as the ode to his daughter 'Gracie' proves by nicking the riff from the Eels' far superior 'Flyswatter', or somewhat uninspired, a la 'Trusted'. Problematically, on many of such instances, Folds lyrical content isn't particularly chipper, but these melodies still want to be so cheerful. And where some manage to get the two extremes to sit alongside each other in a way that's marvellously uncomfortable, here, it just seems as if the problems hinted at in text are being overlooked. On one instance of melancholy he gets it spot on, the downhearted but still sprightly 'Give Judy My Notice', but 'Songs For Silverman' as a whole doesn't get this other side of life pinned down quite so neatly. Pop in general struggles with it. 'Late' (written in tribute to Elliot Smith) and 'Prison Food' are the kind of pain you want to neither share, nor be lifted out from, more the kind you can ignore. They drag, wallow rather than observe.
There's more to life than pop, then. But it is an important side, and a side Ben does well. When he means it, he's one hundred percent convincing at the happy stuff - infectiously so. For the sake of the next record, someone show him a night on the town. Or lend him some Sunn 0))).
Artists in this article: Ben Folds
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