BEN FOLDS: ROCKIN' THE SUBURBS (2001)
1) Annie Waits; 2) Zak And
Sara; 3) Still Fighting It; 4) Gone; 5) Fred Jones, Pt. 2; 6) The Ascent Of
Stan; 7) Losing Lisa; 8) Carrying Cathy; 9) Not The Same; 10) Rockin' The
Suburbs; 11) Fired; 12) The Luckiest.
Alas, it cannot be denied: solo Ben Folds is not the same thing as the Ben Folds
Five. Right away, this is made evident on the twenty-sixth second of ʽAnnie
Waitsʼ, as a silly «piston-style» drum machine starts counting out time,
instead of the trusty frantic rolls of Darren Jessee. Later on, a real rhythm
section kicks in, with all parts provided by Ben himself — but he is neither as
aggressive or inventive a drummer as Darren, nor does he have the same
knowledge of / love for the bass guitar as Robert Sledge. Bass-wise, he sometimes
goes for a Paul McCartney approach (independent melodicity of the instrument
that does not require astute technique) — ʽLosing Lisaʼ, for instance, has a
bass-piano combo not unlike the one on ʽWith A Little Help From My Friendsʼ —
but his drumming is also similar to McCartney's rather than Ringo's, and that
pretty much says everything about why solo Ben Folds is inferior to Ben Folds
and his good friends.
Formally, Rockin'
The Suburbs is not a «one-man project» of the Paul McCartney, Roy Wood, or
Adrian Belew variety. A couple of friends help Ben out on guitars (and he
himself plays some guitar as well, breaking the solemn vow of long ago), some
cellos and background vocals are also contributed by outsiders, but the general
idea is that Ben Folds, indeed, is planning on rockin' those suburbs on his
very own. Which he does, on the title track, introduced by a distorted syncopated
pop-metal riff (said to imitate Korn and Rage Against The Machine, but I'm sure
it would also get the Noel Gallagher seal of approvement), a silly whistling
synth tone to compensate for the macho guitar tone, and appropriate lyrics:
"Let me tell y'all what it's like / Being male, middle class and
white".
The song itself is an obvious parody, from the
lyrics ("just like Bon Jovi did / I'm rocking the suburbs / Except that he
was talented..."; "you better look out because I'm gonna say
fuck") to all the «threatening» guitar tones, and while it did help push
Ben farther into the limelight, becoming his biggest solo hit, it also might
have sealed his fate — stereotyping him in the same camp as The Barenaked
Ladies and other «smarty-clowns» of the era. (For that matter, the Ladies were
stereotyped, too, but in their case, I actually believe that their «smarty-clown»
material was always better than their attempts at being taken seriously; not
the case for Ben Folds). The rest of the album, however, sounds nothing like
the title track.
Instead, it sounds... well, fairly traditional.
Sentimental ballads and happy-sad piano pop songs growing around various real
and imagined life stories. Sometimes around life stories that claim to be real
but look so hyperbolically weird that the brain refuses to acknowledge them as
such (ʽNot The Sameʼ is supposedly about a friend who got drunk, climbed up a
Christmas tree, and the next day climbed down a born-again Christian). Sometimes
with a whiff of kid-friendly psychedelia (ʽZak And Saraʼ, with airy vocal
harmonies and astral electronic effects spicing up the old music hall),
sometimes with just a slight trace of light techno (ʽThe Ascent Of Stanʼ), and
sometimes with an unintentional rip-off of something emotionally similar — the soul-twisting
lonesome-heart ballad ʽFred Jones, Pt. 2ʼ takes a large chunk of its melody
from Dylan's ʽLonesome Death Of Hattie Carrollʼ, doesn't it? Those are some
emotionally tough chords out there.
The bad news is that some of the songs are
boring, or, at least, you don't really need a Ben Folds to lay them upon you. ʽStill
Fighting Itʼ, for instance, has fun lyrics, but the simple melody dressed in
existentialist sauce could just as well come from Alanis Morissette. ʽGoneʼ is
a homebrewn power ballad for which Ben does not have enough power — not even
enough power to bring it down to a satisfactory melodic resolution. ʽCarrying
Cathyʼ, ʽThe Luckiestʼ — all these confessional ballads somehow fail to bring
home the bacon. Maybe the presence of a Robert Sledge could have helped, but standing
as he is here on his own, Ben just doesn't have the strength to pull it off on
a consistent basis.
The charisma is still there big time, and I
couldn't actively «dislike» the album even if I forced myself to do it. But
let's put it this way: no matter how talented and likeable, Ben Folds is no Elton
John, and not even Elton John ever tried to do without anybody else's help on
any of his albums. Rockin' The Suburbs
is an honest and partially successful try, but as for that other part, its success must have been doomed from the very
beginning.
Check "Rockin' The Suburbs" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Rockin' The Suburbs" (MP3) on Amazon
"ʽNot The Sameʼ is supposedly about a friend who got drunk..." er no, the substance was acid not alcohol (bit of a giveaway the first line of the song is "You took a trip and climbed a tree"), which makes a huge difference in understanding the song.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I hate to disagree but IMHO this is Ben Fold's strongest album.
Actually, I take my comment above back slightly, listening to ...Reinhold Messner, I would have to agree that this is a step down musically and ambition-wise. Solid songs but definitely a slight commercial cop-out after the potential shown on the previous album.
DeleteI hope George will review the supersunnyspeedgraphic l, as although it's a bit of a mess, the songs are mostly solid.
I loooooove this album, though the humor of the title track does sort of feel out of place amidst all the balladeering. "Fred Jones, pt. 2" (which, by the way, has John McCrea of CAKE on bg vox), "Zak and Sara," and "The Ascent of Stan" have made it onto many of my mixes.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I think George has got it all wrong here. A superb album - how can you not adore "Still fighting it", "The Luckiest", "The Ascent of Stan"...
ReplyDeleteWell opinions are opinions - one the rare occasions I agree more with Allmusic than Only Solitaire (baffling to find myself in that situation).
While I do like the album more than George (after all, I got it when it came out and grew up listening to Ben Folds Five) I'd agree its definitely not up to the Folds standard. Though I'm glad I have it, I have never bought another Ben Folds album. Consider it.
ReplyDelete