Ben Folds - Way to Normal

Album Review by Jason Morton | 01 Oct 2008
Album title: Way to Normal
Artist: Ben Folds
Label: Columbia
Release date: 29 Sep

Ben Folds is a musician best described as ‘having his moments’. After three full-lengths with Ben Folds Five - each with hits outweighing misses - Folds dropped the Five but remained similar sonically. Free to fully embrace his goof-pop sensibilities, Ben’s outings since have been scattershot affairs. Songs for Silverman seemed to be a sign of maturation, but Way to Normal sees a back peddle to lighter pop fare. To his credit, this yields a few confident experimental turns; You Don’t Know Me benefits from some well-placed samples and a Regina Spektor cameo while The Frown Song and Free Coffee sport redeeming playfulness with synth and production in the face of frivolous lyrical content. As usual, Folds excels with balladry - arriving here in the form of Cologne and Kylie From Connecticut - employing simple melodies and demonstrating the strengths of his idiosyncratic storytelling abilities. Altogether, this is a fun LP, but if you’re already familiar with Folds’ back catalogue you’ll have heard him do much of this to better effect. [Jason Morton]

http://www.benfolds.com