Ben Folds - Way to Normal
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Free Music Notes for Way to Normal
Free Music Review: Another New Direction for Ben
Hit: 5 Stars
Everytime Ben does an album, I'm really blown away at how uniquely different it is from the one before it. Silver man was super different from Suburbs, and Normal is way different from Silverman and even the EP stuff. It's a different album than you're expecting. I guarantee it. That's not a bad thing though. Ben breaks the mold with every new one he puts out and this is no exception.
I think a good one to compare this album to is Reinhold Messner. If you listen to Reinhold after the other two BFF albums, you'll notice that it's a lot more experimental and melancholy. Compared to Whatever and the first album, it's also a lot less pop oriented. The same goes for Way to Normal. When you compare Normal to Silverman and Suburbs, you arrive at the same conclusions. Less pop, more gloomy and more art.
I hated Reinhold at first, but honestly it's now my favorite BFF album. It's so bold and innovative. I have a feeling Normal is quickly becoming my favorite of Ben's solo stuff. It's beautifully sad, but also just punchy and quirky enough to make it fun. Give this a listen for sure. It's well worth your money.
Free Music Review: I Want to Live in Effington!
Hit: 5 Stars
If you are a true Ben fan, you will find this album just as creative, fun, and introspective as any of his others. Honestly, all these bad reviews are really frustrating--Rockin the Suburbs was a fantastic album, but I don't want to here 12 more of them. I listen to Ben for his innovation, creativity, and ability to inspire emotion in very strange (but great!) ways.
As for swearing--give me a break. Song for the Dumped anyone? That was 10 years ago...nothing has changed.
Talking about diapers does not ruin Cologne in the least--in fact, that line is what makes that song inherantly Ben. No one else can get away with that, and he makes it work.
Many people dont' get it, but Ben has always been that way. You get it or you don't. That doesn't make it a bad album, in fact I think it is an album for true fans of Ben--ones that want to here something they've never heard before by one of the most interesting and exciting songwriters of today. I have tickets to the tour and I can't wait to see everything live!
Free Music Review: This is the alternate-universe Messner.
Hit: 5 Stars
I've loved Ben Folds since the beginning, and think you can recognize genius in everything he's done if you can accept his mood at the time. This one is a masterful step backwards in many ways and would be thought of as a masterpiece if this was '99, with BF5, and was released along with Messner. There's more fuzzy bass and angry-at-girlfriend lyrics than anything else since "Whatever." I won't go into big-time detail on each track -that's been done -agreed that "Cologne1" is great. "Before Cologne" has overtones of "Narcolepsy." "Cologne2" is way too over the top.
Where Messner was a departure, this one is a throwback with the benefit of a decade of maturity.
If you became a fan after BF5 and like this one, get Whatever and Ever Amen. If you've been with him the whole time and are wondering what to make of this one, enjoy the more-informed trip down memory lane and hope that he picks up where he left off after Silverman for his next one.
Free Music Review: One of the best albums (for me) in last two years
Hit: 5 Stars
I was amazed when Elton John released The Captain And The Kid in 2006, how wonderful music can one make in this century. Now, two years later I am very happy to say the same with new Ben Folds record. So many interresting music ideas are sorted in good sequence, the album is like real album of photos. Backing vocals are composed very funny, on many places quite dominating. In two or three songs it seems to me I hear Scissor Sisters. But it does not matter 'cause as I've written - this stuff is connected in very nice block of songs sorted from agreable beginning into the meaningful end. Honest recommendation especially for people who love strong sound of piano in pop music. I don't understand how anybody can mark this album only by one star. Let's play it whole, not just in 30-seconds clips.Free Music Review: Good Album...but I don't know what happened to 'Free Coffee' either?
Hit: 5 Stars
I ripped the music and have been listening to it for a few days now and I can tell many of the songs have 'legs' for me meaning I will be listening to them for quite a while. One song 'Free Coffee' unfortunately sounded much better when Ben performed it live with the altoid can resting on strings along with a distortion pedal. It doesn't sound the same here on the studio recording. Both the real and fake versions of Dr. Yang are good...the real version seems to have a Paul McCartney vibe to it IMO. Anyhow the Deluxe edition also contained a DVD with additional material which was enjoyable to view so I would recommend purchasing that edition if still available.