Ben Folds
Songs For Silverman

THE REVIEW

Sometimes it only takes a few moments to understand the atmosphere. A few words and a handful of notes to know if what you're about to encounter is a bluff, all fluff, or genuine polished songs.
For Ben Folds' latest effort, it’s best to start with the solo piano intro of Gracie that brings to mind the best of Joe Jackson. The delicate play of crystalline notes sketches out a slender yet crystal-clear melody. Just a sigh more and then a light touch of cello joins in to support it, just a moment before the voice starts speaking of the conquest of a very young Grace.

From here, from these few dozen notes, it's almost certain, you understand that Folds is someone with talent. That he's a kindred spirit to songwriters like Elvis Costello or Randy Newman. One of those who has so many songs in his head that you can hardly keep up. Gracie, which comes as the fifth track on the album, is a little song that fits in one hand. So much so that it lasts just two minutes and forty seconds. You can't even say you like it before it's already over.
Not bad, for a musician, to know the art of timing and duration. A rare art, which the pianist must certainly be aware of if in that pearl that almost closes the album (Time) he repeats in the chorus with explicit clarity: "In time I will fade away, In time I won't hear what you say, In time, but time takes time you know". And in Late he laments the fact that it's been too late for too long ("It's been too late for a long time").
It almost seems like Folds followed the suggestions for the new (even though not so new) millennium that the admirable Italian (Italo Calvino) jotted down in what should have been his American lectures.

Ben Folds knows the art of essentiality and aims directly at the target (brilliant melodies, sometimes thoughtful, sometimes irreverent lyrics) without hesitation. In the last song (Prison Food) he sings "... a trace of me, it floats in my periphery, and every time I turn to see it goes". Folds aims at the goal without pause and hits the mark so many times that it almost makes you smile. Is that enough?