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“Super D”
Ben Folds
Epic Records
Ben Folds has been everywhere lately. This summer, his side project with Ben Kweller and Ben Lee, appropriately named The Bens, released their first EP. He recently produced William Shatner’s new so-terrible-it’s-good album “Has Been.” The former front man of Ben Folds Five hasn’t released a full album under his name in three years. A year ago he decided to release all the songs for his next album on three five-song EPs. Die-hard fans could collect all of the songs early, while casual fans could wait for the full album to be released.
The plan was to sell the EPs only on the internet and at his shows. Somehow, the EP’s found their way onto the shelves of our local record store, Bull Moose Music. Now, dedicated fans can get a hold of the third EP, “Super D.” However, “can” and “should” aren’t the same thing.
After the first few listens, I thought the first track, “Get Your Hands Off My Woman” was a lousy song. Then I learned it’s a cover of a song by The Darkness. Now I think its just a lousy cover. It attempts to capture the metal feel of hard rock while still employing the piano, but it just doesn’t cut it. Ben Folds Five pulled it off several times with tracks like “Song for the Dumped” and “The Ultimate Sacrifice.” Those days, sadly, are gone.
The second song, “Kalamazoo,” has all the components of a great Ben Folds ballad. There’s the slow piano, several weighed lines and a surprising tempo change, but something is wrong because these elements make up a boring track. It starts to build, sort of like “Carrying Cathy,” but never reaches a moving climax.
“Adelaide,” the third track, kept me from losing faith in one of my favorite musicians. It’s fun and punchy right from the beginning. The chord changes flow into each other effortlessly. The vocals line up with the piano splendidly. It’s the only reason I continued listening to the album.
Back in the Five days, Ben Folds referred to his band’s style as “punk rock for sissies.” The fourth track, “Rent a Cop,” brings back that feeling. The wise-ass lyrics and quick pace make an amusing song that doesn’t take itself seriously. It’s not one his best songs, but it’s above average for this album.
The final track on this EP is a live cover of the Ray Charles tune “Them That Got.” It’s an enjoyable song and seems to be a good reworking of an older piece, until it stops and Ben announces that he doesn’t know the whole song yet and promises to learn it. The paper sleeve the EP comes in says that this track was recorded over two years ago. It looks like he didn’t have enough material to finish this EP and tossed in something for filler.
“Super D” has one good song and two listenable ones. My advice to other serious Ben Folds fans is to wait for the whole album to come out. Hopefully he’ll have learned all of the songs by then.
-Mike Hartwell
Bangor Daily News