Details
Track Listing
DISC 1:
1. Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His head)
2. Dr. Yang
3. Frown Song, The
4. You Don't Know Me - (featuring Regina Spektor)
5. Before Cologne
6. Cologne
7. Errant Dog
8. Free Coffee
9. Bitch Went Nuts
10. Brainwascht
11. Effington
12. Kyle From Connecticut
DISC 2: NORMAL PEOPLE DO IT TOO:
1. Cologne [Piano Orchestra Version]
2. Effinton [DVD Take]
3. Errant Dog [DVD Take]
4. Frown Song [DVD Take], The
5. Kyle From Connecticut [DVD Take]
6. Hiroshima [Video]
DISC 3: BONUS DISC:
1. Salt Lake City
2. Rockit Digitally
3. Ballad Of The Wiggly Twins
4. In The Breeze
5. Anger & Issues In Ellensburg
6. God Bless College Park
7. Rock For Freedom
8. Vegoose
DISC 4:
1. Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit his head) (Side A)
2. Dr. Yang (Side A)
3. Frown Song, The (Side A)
4. You Don't Know Me (Side B) - (featuring Regina Spektor)
5. Before Cologne (Side B)
6. Cologne (Side B)
DISC 5:
1. Errant Dog (Side A)
2. Free Coffee (Side A)
3. Bitch Went Nuts (Side A)
4. Brainwascht (Side B)
5. Effington (Side B)
6. Kylie From Connecticut (Side B)
Album Notes
Composer/Lyricist: Ben Folds.
Personnel: Ben Folds (vocals, piano, Wurlitzer piano, Mellotron, Moog synthesizer); Jared Reynolds (vocals, bass guitar); Sam Smith (vocals, drums).
Additional personnel: Lindsay Jamieson (drums).
Audio Mixers: Leo Overtoom; Michael Brauer.
Audio Remasterer: Leo Overtoom.
Arranger: Ben Folds.
While the delightfully silly opener, "Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)," is a particularly obvious nod to Elton John, one of the many dynamic pop keyboardists Ben Folds has frequently been compared to (also see: Billy Joel, Todd Rundgren), WAY TO NORMAL brings to mind another pianist who rose to power in the 1970s. With its quirky, witty wonderings about the neuroses of love and God and country, Folds's third record recalls Randy Newman post-LITTLE CRIMINALS--bright, bouncy, and buoyant, yet subtly twisted.
On "You Don't Know Me," Folds softly trades a cooing call-and-response with Regina Spektor, as perfect rapport and playful rhapsody disguise lyrics of human isolation in destructive love. The ultra-hooky "Brainwascht" fools around in the "You're So Vain" vein as Folds continues a beef with an unnamed busybody songwriter friend, all while a deceptively perky Bacharach-esque plays behind him. While he's still able to romp in the just plain goofy style that originally brought him attention in the Ben Folds Five days, particularly on the pun-happy Midwest walkabout "Effington," Folds is at his mature best when confronting exhausted honesty as on closing track, "Kylie From Connecticut."
Industry Reviews
These 12 songs are more of an anthropological study of aberrant human behavior, idiosyncratic news stories and bizrre chapers of the musician's own autobiography, all observed with the same unstinting absurdist eye as J.D. Salinger when he penned NINE STORIES more than 50 years ago.
3 stars out of 5 -- Folds crashes about on piano and throws in string arrangements that lurch from melancholy to chaotic discord...
[T]he piano man pounds the ivories with undiminished fervor -- and lyrical venom....Folds shows off his gentler side on the confessional tune 'You Don't Know Me'... -- Grade: B+
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