The Ben Folds / Nick Hornby album Lonely Avenue is out tomorrow. "The collaboration clicks," say the Associated Press/ABC News. "There's a depth to the lyrics rare in pop songs, and they inspire top-notch work from the ever-inventive Folds." Reuters suggests one reason the partnership makes sense: "Hornby and Folds have long steered away from their usual comfort zones and explored different forms of pop culture expression." Canada's National Post calls it "an inventive success."
With the Ben Folds and Nick Hornby collaboration Lonely Avenue out tomorrow on Nonesuch, today is the last day to pre-order the album and receive the limited-edition printed Folds/Hornby manuscript of the song "Picture Window," with a select number signed by the artists. The album is available on vinyl, CD, or in the special deluxe edition with four short stories by Hornby and images by acclaimed photographer Joel Meyerowitz. Nonesuch Store pre-orders also include audiophile-quality, 320 kbps MP3s available for download on release day.
The Associated Press says the coming together of the American singer/songwriter and English novelist on Lonely Avenue works. "The collaboration clicks," writes AP reviewer Steven Wine. "There's a depth to the lyrics rare in pop songs, and they inspire top-notch work from the ever-inventive Folds."
Wine goes on to say: "Hornby finds fresh ways to approach his topics ... Folds pairs them with a wide range of sounds and plenty of catchy melodies."
You can read the complete AP review via ABC News at abcnews.go.com.
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Lonely Avenue is the subject of a feature article from Reuters. In the article, writer Michael D. Ayers takes a closer look at what on the surface might "seem an unlikely pairing" between Folds and Hornby. "While the collaboration might seem odd at first," Ayers writes, "Hornby and Folds have long steered away from their usual comfort zones and explored different forms of pop culture expression."
Folds explains his ongoing interest in taking on unexpected artistic challenges this way: "If I can give myself excuses to make things I wouldn't normally make," he tells Ayers, "maybe by the time I get hit by that Mack truck, I'll have a body of work I'd be proud to have left behind."
Read the complete Reuters article at news.yahoo.com.
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Hornby spoke with the Daily Telegraph in his hometown of London about the collaboration and humbly deflects any attention from his own contribution. "You realise it’s the music," Hornby tells the Telegraph's Neil McCormick, "that’s what makes the song. And I think Ben is a melodic genius."
McCormick, however, explains that the songs on Lonely Avenue do reflect their lyricist's voice. "There is a strong narrative element to the material," McCormick writes, "a sense of humour, pathos and domestic detail not unfamiliar from Hornby’s novels."
Read the article at telegraph.co.uk.
Also in the UK, Folds and Hornby discussed the album on the BBC World Service arts program The Strand on Friday night; you can listen again online at bbc.co.uk.
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The album is featured in Canada's National Post as well, which, in fact, sees Folds and Hornby to be quite well suited to one another, given that "both the author of High Fidelity and Fever Pitch and the singer-songwriter of 'Brick' and 'Rockin’ the Suburbs' are adept at making embarrassing, awkward moments into art," writes the Post's Mike Doherty.
Doherty further explains the duo's shared sensibility this way: "Together, unlike most contemporary minstrels of 'messing-up' music, the duo don’t reduce uncertainty to self-pity, anger, or despair—they steer listeners through a range of emotions."
Any complications that might have come from turning a novelist's ideas into song lyrics were soon overcome and, in fact, "the pushing and pulling in unexpected directions makes Lonely Avenue an inventive success," Doherty concludes.
Read the complete article at nationalpost.com.
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To order the album, visit the Nonesuch Store now.
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