Songs For Silverman, By Ben Folds

This will be the best album of the year. In my opinion, it doesn’t get much better than this, just keep in mind that Ben Folds is my favorite musical artist. After four long years of teasing us with a live cd and 3 EPs, Ben finally releases his follow up to Rockin the Suburbs. The live cd and EP’s were great, but it is nice to finally have a whole disk of new songs.

Songs for Silverman comes on a dual disc with a dvd side that contains some making of video as well as the entire album in 5.1 surround sound. I opted for the cheaper version of the disk, but there is a special edition version that contains a 40-page booklet full of Ben Foldsí personal photos. If you didn’t know, photography is a serious hobby of Ben’s. I am sort of wishing I would have shelled out a few more bucks for the book.

On Songs for Silverman Ben is backed by the same drummer and bass player throughout the whole disk. In that way it is closer to a Ben Folds Five album, but Ben’s palette also hints at flavors of country and jazz.

As usual for Ben, there isn’t a bad song on the disk. One song, Give Judy My Notice, was released on one of his EP’s, but the album version is very different, and in my opinion better. On Late, Ben writes a nice tribute to Elliott Smith, saying “The songs you wrote got me through a lot.”

My last observation is that after I had the whole disk imported to iTunes, I noticed that the album’s fell into alphabetical order. The order went Rockin, Songs, Speed, Sunny, and Super. The EP’s sound like they could belong on the album, and I could see a later release of this album containing all 27 songs. Maybe it was a coincidence, but I would like to think that maybe Ben is as obsessive about his music library as I am.

I think I am just as big of a Ben fan as you, but I'm not sure this is going to be my favorite album of his. Actually I must be a bigger fan since I shelled out the clams for the special edition book:) Of course his albums usually grows on me with time. I like the album, but a few of the songs I'm not crazy about yet. I will bring the book along to the HOW Conference to show you. I will also share the TV special that Kyle taped from DIY's program on celebrity hobbies. Part of the episode was dedicated to Ben's photography. Very interesting. I know you will enjoy it.

Why am I such a huge Ben Folds fan? I'm not sure how it all started. I think I was hooked after listening to Whatever and Whatever Amen over and over in college while doing art homework. Or maybe it's the fan email list I'm on. But I don't actually read emails from other artists (or their record labels). Why Ben? Maybe it's just the music. The latest album(s) are quite nice. My favorite part about the extra packaging--the 40-page book--is the full lyrics with a photo for every song. Songs for Goldfish is a real treat, with live songs and pure fun. Although I don't understand the title or the cover photo. I still need to check out the DVD that cames with Songs for Silverman.