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The Unauthorized Biography...
04/27/1999 3:00 AM, Yahoo! Music
Mark Rowland
Ben Folds is the leader of a little band that thinks big, and here he's made the most of it, employing string and horn sections throughout The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner to give this, the band's third "legit" studio album, the sound and sweep of a wide-screen epic.
The good news is that Folds hasn't lacquered over the humor and quirks which made him compelling in the first place. Like a latter-day Todd Rundgren, he's a natural tunesmith who arms his songs about lost love and life's ennui with a small encyclopedia's worth of musical reference, from tinkling cocktail lounge to German marching band to Hollywood variety show. It makes for a fun ride on "Army," where shifting musical styles prattle like a Greek chorus while the singer whines about his own lack of direction. And on "Don't Change Your Plans," a son-of-Bacharach horn break gives that lament a romantic, melancholy glow.
But also like Rundgren, Folds can be too clever for his own good; bombastic codas to "Regrets" and the otherwise touching "Lullabye" may aspire to Brian Wilson, but the result is more like Joe Jackson. Quieter moments work better, complementing the heartfelt quality of the singer's plaintive tenor as he counsels a friend to be herself on "Jane Be Jane," or while gloomily soaking in the bad news on a too-brief "Hospital Song." All in all, it's a record which dances on a tightrope between art and arty; listeners will decide for themselves which is which, but in either event you can't help admiring the performance.
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