6 keepers
keeper avg .545
It's a post-divorce album, although unlike Beck, Folds's response of course is to get funny. Though Folds's tendency to write very specifically about himself limits the song's impact for me, "Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hits His Head)"****, on top of having a great title, peaks when he describes his reaction to "There was blood on the keyboard" by simply grunting "Oh My God." The energetically played "Brainwascht"**** , also based on a specific part of Folks's life, a little artistic pissing match between Folds and the team Fleming & John (probably), is also catchy and fun, unlike the tuneless "Free Coffee" (but now that I'm rich they give me coffee). Folds also has fun skewering the co-opting of eastern / Asian / new age / etc. practices on the slapstick "Dr. Yang"**** (Hey Dr. jack Bend me like a pretzel till I crack All my joints and bones Beat me up and send me home), and on "The Frown Song," which adds boorish white privilege to the mix. In the hilariously introduced "Bitch Went Nuts"***** the narrator's hyperbolic tale escalates until all he can do is confusedly chuckle "holy fucking shit." And "Effington"**** pushes its juvenile concept, a typically Folds pun on the name of the Illinois town of Effingham, to its (il)logical conclusion of showboating, retro-advertising-styled production reminiscent of The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. The moments of seriousness are few but memorable, including the intimate "Cologne" and the aching album closer "Kylie From Connecticut"****.
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