Ben Folds, ‘Songs For Silverman’
By user • May 19th, 2005 • Category: Album Reviews
Prolonged and/or everlasting youth is a great idea, in theory.
Peter Pan was successful, and remains successful a hundred years after its conception, because it appeals to our inner child; it reaches the part of our psyche that wants to remain adolescently blissful.
But in reality, we grow up. People age, and find themselves telling others to “act their age” – the same rhetoric they tried so hard to rebel against.
Bend Folds’ childlike phrasing has always teetered on the edge between trite, high school poetry and genius simplicity. However, at age 38, lines like “Why you gotta act like you know when you don’t know/ It’s okay if you don’t know everything,” no longer sound brilliant-by-way-of-obvious. Instead, he comes across like that creepy old guy in the grocery store, with the gold earring, tight black jeans and VANS, trying way to hard to hold onto his past.
Folds sounds his wisest, most sincere and best when his lyrics ring out with “I’ve been there before” kind of advice. Unfortunately, “Songs For Silverman” lacks the hindsight to sound believable. Tracks read here-and-now like they are carved on cafeteria tables and study hall desktops.
And without that pensive, elder statesmanship, Folds’ voice reeks of someone trying hard to grasp at adolescent straws. No amount of chunky, banging piano and delicate falsetto can rectify that.
Unless the Silverman who this album is allegedly penned for is a 14 year-old boy unaware of Folds’ middle age, he should be gravely disappointed with the lackluster gift.
But then again, most 8th graders are impressionable lads awed by pedestrian lines like “ I won’t be your bitch anymore/ And follow you around/ And hold the door.”
DerekWright.net, May 19, 2005
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