Ben Folds- You to Thank

On a recent road trip, I was looking through my ipod for something that fell into the category of “things I haven’t listened to in forever”, I decided on Ben Folds. It took approximately 30 seconds into “You to Thank” to realize that someone needs to show Ben Folds some love. Who better than me? “You to Thank” is the second track on Songs for Silverman, Folds’ second solo album. (side note: there is almost no real difference between Ben Folds solo stuff and Ben Folds Five. Sure, on his own Folds uses some more instruments: guitar, strings, horns etc. But by and large the sound is almost identical to the drums, bass, piano sound of Ben Folds Five. There’s almost no drop off in quality either. Folds’ has yet to record an album as good top to bottom as “Whatever and ever amen”, but his first 2 solo records are packed with songs just as good as anything he did with Ben Folds Five.)

“You to Thank” is a great Ben Folds song, and fairly representative of his music as a whole. To begin with, the piano playing is lights out (you’re darn right I just used “lights out” to describe piano playing! Shawn Merriman, if you’re reading this I apologize, please don’t eat me). Ben’s piano licks are lightening fast and he pounds the living crap out of the keys. Few guys own the piano like Ben does. In the same way that Elton John and Billy Joel owned it. Ben is also underrated as a singer, he’s got great range and can hit some really impressive high notes.

Ben’s songwriting is really what makes the song. Ben has a lot of what I call “pop smarts”. He knows how to write a song that’s very listenable (Is that a word? Never mind, I don’t care. I’m making it one.) It’s poppy and catchy without seeming like its poppy and catchy. Ben also has a style all his own. Very tongue-in-cheek, frequently foul mouthed (which is not something normally associated with piano men), but his songs are almost always emotional. He’s written songs about death, abortion, divorce, heartbreak and so on. But he never comes across as whiny or emo. That’s a fairly amazing feat. Adam Duritz of Counting Crows has spent a career writing about heartbreak, isolation and loneliness and people KILL him for it! If you go too far into deep weighty emotional issues, people hate you for it, but somehow, Ben Folds rises above it. Part of that is because he's so funny. Go back and listen to "Army", that song is basically a comedy sketch. Ben owns the whole, nerdy, foul mouthed, piano genius persona, and that is a winning combination.

But getting back to the song: it's a song about a couple that gets married too fast and runs into early trouble. The piano riff in the beginning is very soft, but as the drums and other instruments come in, that exact same riff becomes loud and raucus. It kind of mirrors the relationship, is sweet and pretty when it starts, but becomes loud and out of control later. One of the interesting things about the song lyrically is that it never really resolves itself. You don't know what happens to the couple. The song ends with the same lines it opened with:

By the time the buzz was wearing off

We were standing out on the sidewalk

With our tatoos that looked like rings

In the hot Nevada sun, and they won't fade

Here's hoping things worked out for them