Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The amazing combination of Ben Folds and Nick Hornby

(First of all... hi! remember me? I haven't written anything for aaaaaages, so I'm glad Roxy has been keeping you all entertained!)


So a while ago I heard some news that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end: Ben Folds (singer/songwriter/musician) and Nick Hornby (writer) were coming together to produce an album. Words by Nick, music by Ben. I'm generally a fan of Ben Folds' work, solo, with band Ben Folds Five, and side projects like the Bens (Ben Kweller, Ben Folds and Ben Lee) and his work with William Shatner. Basically I don't think this guy can put a food wrong.

So if you don't know Ben Folds used to be in a band called Ben Folds Five, who brought out some great songs most notably to me the haunting Brick about Folds' experience of having a child aborted when he was a teenager. I actually studied that song at school back in the day. In 2001 Folds went solo and has brought out a string of albums since then. He's worked with the artists already mentioned as well as others like Regina Spektor and Amanda Palmer.

Nick Hornby on the other hand is a writer with books like High Fidelity, About a Boy (Both made into films), How to Be Good and A Long Way Down. Hornby has been one of my favourite authors for quite a while. I can turn to his books when I don't want to put too much effort into a book but at the same time get a lot out of it. He also writes some interesting non fiction and so far there hasn't been a publication of his that I've read and haven't liked.

So for the last couple of days I've practically had "From Above", the current single from their soon to be released album Lonely Avenue, on repeat. It is a really beautiful song about us all having soulmates, yet generally we will never know them. Hornby's lyrics definitely bring something different to Folds' music, and it's something great. So give it a listen if you're at all interested!

Any songs that you've had on repeat recently?

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