Ben Folds remains one of America’s most criminally under-rated songwriters, from the days of the Ben Folds Five, whose cracking back catalogue somehow failed to strike a collective chord with the masses, to his solo work (‘Rocking The Suburbs’ was one of the funniest, catchiest tunes never to be a hit single). More recently, he has been project managing William Shatner’s mysterious musical misadventures to great effect. Unfortunately, Songs For Silverman isn’t the collection of songs to make Ben Folds a household name.
Sure, his trademark sardonic humour is still present and correct in fits and starts, but it’s somewhat tempered by a sense of sincerity that doesn’t always seem to fit him quite as comfortably. Indeed, he’s retired the catchy intelligent pop persona that served him so well and replaced it with that of a heart-on-the-sleeve ivory tinkler.
The album opens brightly enough with ‘Bastard’, a lip-biting paean to love, loss and growing older disgracefully , all served up with the catchiest of choruses and some kick-ass honkytonk piano.
Pretty soon, however, we’re stuck in the MOR mire with ‘You To Thank’ and ‘Jesusland’, which are just Folds-by-numbers. The current single ‘Landed’ sounds like nothing more than a Counting Crows out-take. ‘Sentimental Guy’ is far too sentimental for its own good, ‘Time’ is too sickly sweet and the closing ‘Prison Food’ is just too self-pitying to love.
Sometimes, though, this nouveau Folds hits the money spectacularly, as on the truly gorgeous ‘Gracie’, a magical song about watching your child grow up and realising that your days of parental control are coming to an end. ‘Trusted’ is a succinctly observed tale of a relationship going sour, while ‘Give Judy My Notice’ strikes just the right balance between melody and melancholy and ‘Late’ is a near-perfect musical tribute to the late and truly great Elliott Smith.