Ben Folds

Songs for Silverman (Epic)

Comments (0) By Sarah Hepola Thursday, Apr 28 2005

Whatever and Ever Amen, Ben Folds Five's breakout album, was filled with the snarky, stoned, hilarious observations of a man who didn't know whether to cry or write a musical satire about it. It's almost a decade later now--Folds is solo, married (happily, for a change) and he's a father, who has abandoned the sarcastic, piano-banging gimmicks in favor of tame melodies and restraint. His second solo album, Songs for Silverman, is confident and bravely sincere--slower tempos and none of the tongue-in-cheek goofs that have marked a Ben Folds album. (His first solo album, Rockin' the Suburbs, sported as its breakout song and namesake a typical Folds satire of poseurs and wannabes. Super D, one of the three EPs he released exclusively online, featured a cover of the Darkness' "Get Your Hands off of My Woman.") In its place, we have a sappy song about his daughter ("Gracie"), red-state peculiarities ("Jesusland"), a eulogy for Elliott Smith ("Late") and a handful of vaguely compelling character sketches. "Landed" is a beautiful ballad of romantic ambiguity, even if the piano does sound a little like James Taylor's "Fire and Rain." But that brings up a problem Folds faces: how to keep his edge while losing his youth. As fine a songwriter and musician as he is, Songs for Silverman lacks tooth. It's fine, it's grown-up, the arrangements are nice, but I can't help wishing someone would sit down at that piano--and just bang the living shit out of it.