Lonely Avenue

Music review time. I recently acquired the new collaboration between Ben Folds and Nick Hornby, an album called Lonely Avenue. It has a different feel than previous BF releases, but that's a given as it's a collab. Still absolutely worth a listen.

I'm assuming most readers know who Ben Folds is. He has been releasing records for the last fifteen years, some under the moniker Ben Folds Five and later on a few solo albums. He has gained a niche among college-aged and young adults with his heinously catchy melodies and heartbreaking lyrics. And he is a whirlwind live performer. If you ever have the chance to see him, TAKE IT. It will be one hell of a show.

Nick Hornby is an artist not generally corollated with writing music. He has written about music his entire career as a writer, but this is his first instance of actually collaborating on a musical album. He is most well known for writing several popular novels, including High Fidelity, About A Boy, and Juliet, Naked, as well as the screenplay for the 2009 movie An Education, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. So the dude's got chops. I am not in love with every single thing he's ever done, but on the other hand some of his work is the best written material I've ever read. This guy knows how to pierce your heart through writing about normal people with real problems. He can capture dialogue so incredibly well and make you feel heartache you've never had.

So how do these two collaborate on an album of music? Hornby writes words, Folds writes lyrics. Sounds weird but potentially awesome. And in my opinion, it turns out to be mostly awesome. The interesting part is that it clearly sounds like a Ben Folds album, but the disconnect happens as he starts to sing. The lyrics are not Ben Folds lyrics, and you can tell. It feels more like a Nick Hornby book than a Ben Folds album. And on some songs that's amazing, some it doesn't completely work. I don't think Hornby has his complete songwriting chops down yet, like on songs like Your Dogs and Picture Window. The songs have great feelings communicated but they don't feel natural to me. And that's just me. The majority of the album works great. And I think the biggest reason it's great is because they chose the perfect pairing of artists. Nobody could've pulled this album off but Ben Folds. His music is the ideal vehicle for Horby's writing. Hornby writes in such a familiar way, with stories about real people, and that's how Ben Folds has always written his music. It doesn't feel totally like a Ben Folds album, but it's as close as you can get. And the off-kilter feeling you get isn't bad, it's just not totally Ben Folds.

One of the best examples is the song Password. It uses a really unique songwriting device, spelling of words, and at first listen it seems a little cheesy, but after a few listens and the songs sinks in, holy cow it just rips you apart. You stop listening to the spelling of the words and you feel the pain in the narrator. That is unique and weird songwriting. But it's awesome. The song changes gradually the more you listen to it.

Final verdict? Great album. Not the best Ben Folds album ever but that's because it's not purebred Ben Folds. What it is is a great listen for fans of either artist.

-Jon

P.S. The album comes with killer liner notes. A quick blurb written by Hornby about each song, and then four different short stories written by him as well. Super great. Cool photos too.

Battle Studies.

Well, that's an embarrassing way to start this review.

Quite an event last Tuesday. John Mayer finally released his fourth studio album, Battle Studies, and I got to experience hearing brand new, non-live, studio-made, John Mayer-written music for the first time in three years. Pretty exciting stuff for me. And admittedly, I was a bit nervous, as John's become quite the douche in the last three years, but it turns out my fears were unwarranted.

JM hasn't branched too far out here. If nothing else, he's taken a few steps backwards in regards to his other music. But this isn't a bad thing. His pre-Continuum music is great, so these new songs are really just a nice addition to his body of work. Most of them are anyway. As a whole, Battle Studies isn't as cohesive as Continuum, in terms of musical style and song quality. The only thing that really does bind most of the record together is a general (I use that term loosely, see Crossroads, Who Says, War Of My Life, none really pertain to the ->) theme of breaking up. Musically, he definitely dabbles in quite a few areas, but as a whole he's stepping back towards the pop scene. Continuum was just so soulful; soul emanated from every part of that album. Not so here. Overall it's much more of a pop music, radio-ready type of feel.

OK the songs. If I had my way, I would cut three songs off the record, completely retool one song, and leave the other seven exactly how they are. That's not the best percentage, but still alright. It's the middle stretch that is just plain bad. The triumvirate of Who Says, Perfectly Lonely, and War Of My Life really pains me, and Crossroads might be one of the most disappointing covers I've ever heard. Who Says sounds like an extension of his a-hole lifestyle set to a pretty little acoustic ditty, which is catchy enough that it's annoying how bad the song is. Sorry John, but very few of your fans relate to planning trips to Japan by themselves and canceling them at will. Perfectly Lonely is one of those empowerment songs that I find so inane. It'll be the one at concerts that all the lonely people pump their fists to and sing along too loudly with, trying to fool themselves and everybody around them that they're so happy they're alone. Annoying. I know this might seem like a dumb thing to say since I'm married but why can't he write one song about actually finding love or being in love where there aren't any negative little asides, or "this is great BUT..."? Just one John. I only want one.

Crossroads is a real bummer for me too. When I saw this on the track list I was psyched because of how great his Hendrix cover was on Continuum. This cover sounds like he pulled it directly from Guitar Hero. I seriously think Steve Jordan sat down to a drum kit with four parts, each a different color. And the guitar tone is so awful, which only makes the solo worse than it already is. This is just a really uninspired cover, which bums me out because usually JM does covers so well (see Free Fallin', Bold As Love, Kid A from the old days). He chooses awesome tunes, not always the most well-known, and makes them even better, injects them with something unique. This is just sonic mush. Wish you could have a re-do on this one John.

But if you listen to the good parts of this record, he really starts to shine again. The strongest element of this whole album is his voice, but only when it's bolstered by the melody lines he sings. He has seemed to hit on really quality melody lines, that are not only gorgeous, but fit his voice perfectly. Assassin and Heartbreak Warfare are the two I'm thinking of most here, but also listen to All We Ever Do Is Say Goodbye, Edge Of Desire (anybody else think this song sounds like Jimmy Eat World circa 2004?). All beautiful melodies.

Assassin is shaping up to be my favorite song off the album, and thank goodness it's smack dab in the middle to break up all those crap tunes. This one really demonstrates the little things that put John Mayer above most pop artists recording today. Just like 95% of popular music, the first chorus of this tune is underlined by some pretty simple power chords. It's at 3:41 when the second chorus starts right after his guitar solo, holy cow he adds just the second note of each chord to each chord he plays and it elevates the foundation of the song to a whole new level. It's a subtle addition but it really distinguishes it from the humdrum music that we hear so often.

And I have to note the bass playing here. Bassist Pino Palladino is out of this world. To get the full effect of his playing, throw on some headphones, turn them up just a bit more than you normally would, and listen to the introduction up through the first chorus. Listen to the bass. Pino is the most controlled bass player I've ever heard. No matter how many notes he seems to bounce over, every single one fits within each chord and leads the listener along without them knowing where we're going. Listening to this song for the first few times, I could never predict what was coming next in the bass line. So great. Pino kills it here.

One quick note about Half Of My Heart, almost certainly coming to a radio near you very soon. The song is fine, nothing too special, but the back-up vocals are sung by freakin' Taylor Swift. Alright JM, I've got beef with this. She's got a fine voice, clear and pretty, but she's hardly even in this song, and the only reason I can really see that you added her in this is to grab a few new country music fans and tween fans who weren't at music-purchasing age when Mayer released Wonderland eight years ago. At the writing of this, Half Of My Heart was at #7 on the iTunes Singles chart. And I guarantee it's only because the title is followed by (with Taylor Swift). And with all of his clout, all of his street cred in the music community, he gets Taylor Swift to guest on his record? The man has worked with Billy Preston, B.B. King, John Scofield, Herbie Hancock, is friends with Buddy Guy and Eric Clapton, and he gets pop-tween-queen Taylor Swift to guest on his record. Just kind of a bummer to me.

Other random thoughts: War Of My Life wins the award for gayest John Mayer song title, while Friends, Lovers Or Nothing is definitely a great track and it will be a great show/encore closer. In very much the same vein as I'm Gonna Find Another You, just more Beatles-ish. Bold move too, leaving out that ol' oxford comma.

So I don't think it's not his best work, but overall it fits well into his canon. And now that I've had a week with it, I can say that it's worn well already. The first two days I gave the songs I didn't like five or six listens to give them a chance and then started skipping them, the last few days they've all definitely grown on me. So go buy it. Support good music, because the month of November will have seen album releases from Weezer, 50 Cent, Bon Jovi, Fall Out Boy (a greatest hits compilation, are you kidding me?), Lady GaGa, Adam Lambert, Rihanna, and Lil' Jon. When the music scene is that bleak, you've got to stand up for what's right and good in this world. John Mayer might not completely fit those two adjectives, but he's far better than all of the other stuff I just listed.

-Jon

reptile.

eric clapton is sort of a tough case for me. he is widely acknowledged as one of the best guitar players ever to grace the stage, even prompting graffiti artists in the 70s to write the infamous phrase "clapton is god" various places around england. the problem for me is that his music and his playing is so deeply rooted in the blues. now this is absolutely not a bad thing, but instead of adding the sensibility of blues into his pop music (or vice versa) in a subtle way, he often plays lots of just straight up 12 bar blues music, like straight from the 20s. it's pretty intense bluesy music. and as much as that music is great, i usually don't just sit down and listen to an album full of it. that's why i've never really digested anything he did with cream, anything with the yardbirds, any of the derek and the dominoes, any of his first few solo albums. the only ones i've ever really gotten into are obviously unplugged (basically the album that taught me how to play real guitar) and pilgrim.

i had heard this album reptile once or twice, but really the only songs i had remembered and liked were the title track and the album closer. i first heard the album in kansas city, so sometime around 2003. fast forward to 2009, my roommates and i set up my new record player in our living room and we put on the first record i'd ever owned, stevie wonder's hotter than july. we are sitting there talking and listening to it and all of a sudden the fourth track comes on, i ain't gonna stand for it. it sounds crazy familiar but i can't exactly place where i've heard it before. it jangles around in my noggin for a day or so before i realized clapton covered it on reptile so i dust those files off on my ipod and have been listening to it consistently for about two weeks. it is a really great album. it consists of three covers and lots of originals. here's a bit more on it.

1. "Reptile" (Eric Clapton) – 3:26

title track. just a simple instrumental, but there are so many great chord patterns in this one. there are two really incredible parts to this song, the gorgeous lead guitar part and everything else. let's break the everything else down first. there is a really groovy acoustic picking the chords in the background, and whoever is playing this rhythm guitar has got some serious funk in his bones. and the chord progression is so quiet but foundational. such good rhythm playing. on top of that, you've got a really quiet fender rhodes electric piano adding gorgeous chords and riffs in the background, spicing up the tune just enough. the bass is almost impossible to make out but essential, and the drum part is so sexy. the drummer is really rocking the brush stroke perfectly. i also hear the occasional wind chimes that close out a verse, such ambience. in the end though, two words really sum up the drum part: egg shaker. 'nuff said.

now the lead guitar part. what a hawt solo. overbearing this is not. this is where clapton's playing really comes into focus and has the potential to slap you in the face if you are paying attention. he's got such beautifully bluesy little licks that sit perfectly in this completely un-bluesy tune. and it's just a catchy solo. if nothing else, it's fun to listen to because it sounds like it's fun to play. on the concert dvd one more car, one more rider, clapton's band opens with this track and it just looks like a fun tune. and if i had to play my electric guitar with only one tone for the rest of my life, this would be one of the few i would be choosing between. such a muffled, warm sound.

2. "Got You on My Mind" (Howard Biggs/Joe Thomas) – 4:30

this is one of the more traditional blues numbers on the album. tunes like this really showcase how much the blues are imprinted in clapton's dna. he's got the guitar riffs of the great bluesmen down perfectly and adds his own touch. this is also one of the songs that nails clapton's voice so well. his voice sits perfectly over a 12 bar blues progression and you can really feel the blues in his voice. it's clear when it needs to be and growls just enough to be awesome.

3. "Travelin' Light" (J. J. Cale) – 4:17

written by usual clapton collaborator j.j. cale, this one has a bit of a rockin' feel to it. clapton's guitar sounds great as ever, but i'm not crazy about this song. it just doesn't really speak to me all that much, and the solo is a little too whiny for me to really want to learn it or anything.

4. "Believe in Life" (Clapton) – 5:05

a slower track, this has a very pilgrim-ish feel to it. sounds like change the world's distant cousin or something. nice little acoustic chords behind the lead guitar. it's a great tune, but clocking in at just over five minutes, i hardly ever listen to the whole thing unless i'm listening to the whole album straight through no skips, which only happens occasionally. this isn't one i skip to ever. which doesn't mean i don't like it, but there's just not enough that captures me to hang in there for a full five minutes.

5. "Come Back Baby" (Ray Charles) – 3:55

the first cover on the album. this sounds very much like the ray charles original, just a lot more full and better quality of recording. this tune features the real gravel in clapton's voice to belt out tunes written by ray, and he really tears into his guitar solo, something not found in ray's version. great tune.

6. "Broken Down" (Simon Climie/Dennis Morgan) – 5:25

this is a really great bluesy track. it's along the same lines as old love, not thematically but musically for sure. by that i guess i mean just a really killer tune, something that sounds almost harsh, and would sound perfect with a full band or played acoustic. the album features a full band version, but this tune would fit well with just an acoustic guitar and a lead playing over it. really catchy progression, even if it is a simple two chords. leads to lots of soloing possibilities, which clapton takes advantage of. this tune features a fantastic huge mix of instruments that all add a lot to the song. super fun to play with.

7. "Find Myself" (Clapton) – 5:15

this has a very ray charles feel to it but it's a clapton original. the rhythm plunks along a cute little chord progression. worth 4 minutes, but not 5 and a quarter.

8. "I Ain't Gonna Stand for It" (Stevie Wonder) – 4:49

here's the track that reignited my whole love affair with this album. hearing the stevie wonder original made me want to hear this again and it was all over after that. this song is just too much fun. my vote goes to clapton's rendition rather than stevie's. stevie's smacks just too much of country, while clapton's pulls off this really full sound that just blows out your ears. this is one of those songs that makes me wish i could sing and play at the same time. i don't know how clapton does it but to sing the chorus with any sort of conviction while riffing like he does is incredible. it's like his guitar and his voice are trading licks.

9. "I Want a Little Girl" (Murray Mencher/Billy Moll) – 2:58

quickly becoming another of my favorites on the album. this has the plunkiness of an old ray charles tune with a splash of clapton soul. anybody that sings about the girl of his dreams being able to cook chicken...that's good lyricism right there. no other way around it. great piano on this one too, with gorgeous guitar over it.

10. "Second Nature" (Clapton/Climie/Morgan) – 4:48

haven't given this one tons of listens. but i enjoy it. not much else to say other than it's pretty generic.

11. "Don't Let Me Be Lonely Tonight" (James Taylor) – 4:47

he turns a sexy james taylor song into an even sexier eric clapton song. i always thought this was a great song but hearing it with some rippin' guitar over this hawt chord structure really takes the song where it needs to be. sexy music deserves sexy guitar and clapton provides it.

12. "Modern Girl" (Clapton) – 4:49

really cool acoustic number. it's got a gorgeous melodic structure and a weird cheek popping noise every third beat which is awesome.

13. "Superman Inside" (Doyle Bramhall/Clapton/Susannah Melvoin) – 5:07

the low point of the album for me. sounds really generic. reminds me that clapton is still capable of making music that larry the cable guy fans could potentially enjoy listening to. kind of a bummer for me.

14. "Son and Sylvia" (Clapton) – 4:43

beautiful acoustic instrumental. this and reptile were the two songs that really hooked me from the beginning with this album, like 6 years ago when i first heard it. i think i heard this right around the time i had purchased my strat, and learning this was a great exercise in terms of picking stuff up by ear and soloing too. the layering in this tune is superb; each verse just keeps adding more and more, another guitar, a harmonica, weird instruments i don't even know about. and added all up it just sounds so beautiful.

i'd recommend this album to any clapton fan, no matter how marginal. clapton spans like eighty different genres for this album so it's got something anybody can groove to. plus lots of other good stuff too. check it out.

-jon

808s and heartbreak.

so it's been a little more than a week since kanye west released his latest, 808s and heartbreak. granted, i didn't have loads of time over break to digest it, but i feel at least introduced to the album now. here are my initial thoughts.

actually i want to start by saying that i am excluding pinocchio story from any review i do of this album. that song is so terrible and i'm so confused as to why kanye tacked it on the end. kanye might've said "scrotum" in graduation's closer, big brother, but that tune is far and away better than pinocchio story. so i'm not even counting that as part of the album. moving on.

right off, i knew it was gonna be different. i did my very best not to go into it thinking it was "kanye's fourth album". and it's not at all. the whole thing feels like a side project rather than an album in the "kanye west" discography. obviously as time goes on, as his listeners absorb this album and he releases more, we will find where it fits with the rest of his albums. but right now, a week after it came out, it doesn't feel like it fits anywhere with his previous three records. he sings and makes use of the auto-tune through the whole thing. no real rapping here, at least by kanye. this isn't really a bad thing though, at least it doesn't take away from the album. kanye isn't a good singer (if you've ever heard him live...egh.) but the auto-tune corrects his off pitches and gives him a robotic element that is pretty cool. very importantly though, he doesn't overdue the robot voice like t-pain, so i haven't gotten sick of that.

the thing right away that was hard for me to get around and i'm still trying to get used to is the music. talk about veering away from what worked for him. kanye was one of the kings of sampling and organic, original hip-hop beats. this is so far away from that. he used a drum programming machine, the roland tr-808, for most of the beats, and instead of actually sounding like a real drum kit, a lot of the foundational beats of this album sound really computery. still, not necessarily a bad thing, but what he layers on top is what i didn't warm up to right away. there's more piano here than his previous work, which isn't bad, but a lot of it is just really repetitive. and that's where i think i go off track with this record. there is so little variation here. almost all the songs are just one chord progression with little difference between the chorus and verses. there isn't enough that draws me in. lots of reviews i've read are saying things like this is a bold move from his previous work and it's a really new original thing for him to do. i'd say it's a bold move, but i wouldn't say it's original. so many of the songs sound like what everybody else is doing right now. with a few exceptions, this could've been an album from t-pain or akon. it's new in terms of kanye's catalogue, but in terms of popular music right now? not at all. heartless is such a bore to listen to for me because not only it is super repetitive, it sounds like a thousand other people's songs. same with robocop (especially robocop) and see you in my nightmare. amazing sounds like it was made 100% by timbaland. street lights sounds like a postal service tune with a black guy singing. it just didn't sound new to me, didn't seem fresh.

i could go through song by song and pick out things i don't like, but i don't really want to do that. i think my biggest critique is that this doesn't seem that new to me. i feel like i've heard songs like this before from other artists of whom i'm not a huge fan. i was hoping for something totally off the wall in terms of not only kanye's music but music in general, not something inspired in any way by lil wayne. there seems to be a lot of potential on this album, it's just not pushed as far as it could go. like love lockdown, it's an awesome song, whenever the african drums are getting pounded. but when they stop it's like are we even listening to a song anymore? this whole album is sparse and i think i was hoping for a little more.

i'm in kind of a rough place cause i don't want to bad talk this album a lot, i don't even want to go as far as to say i'm disappointed in it. cause i kind of knew this is how it was gonna be and this is how i was gonna respond to it. but after my first listen through, there wasn't a single song that i really wanted to go tell colleen about or made me jump around my room. there weren't any flashing lights or good life type tracks. this just isn't exactly my style of music. if this album had been released by anybody i probably wouldn't fall in love with it. kanye hasn't alienated me with this, he just released an album i'm not particularly crazy about.

least favorite track: see you in my nightmare feat. lil wayne
awful. all the way around. sorry, where the heck is the beat? there is nothing solid at all. and that synth. did kanye choose the "mosquito" setting on his keyboard? horrible sound. and lil wayne...man i am still confused where this guy came from and how he is so popular. i guess i never listen to the radio so i never, ever hear his songs, but i feel like he just popped up like 9 months ago and was suddenly the most popular rapper around. whatever, that's something for another blog. what is important is that his verse on this song is not good. this whole break-up theme, "see you in my nightmare" idea isn't good at all. i love break-up songs as much as the next guy, but if you're really gonna complain about your break-up, do it in a way that is engaging. this is not engaging. this is engaging (#4 for the best angry break-up song ever). it's just not an original concept.

favorite track: paranoid. this is my jam. my favorite for sure. super fun beat, great sing along chorus, the chords keep me guessing, it's just an all around awesome tune. thanks for this one 'ye.

-jon

p.s. give me another week and i will like this whole album more than i do now. i started writing this yesterday and listening to the record while finishing this up, i'm liking all the songs even more now than before. so this review only really applies to the first week of listening to the album for me.