Published on Jun 14, 2004
You just never know, y’know?
Here I was, thinking I’d give Ben Kweller a try and then sit
down and write a fresh entry for the pantheon of Glowing Reviews By
Star-Struck Critics of the Young Prodigy Himself. Raised in a
musical family, Kweller was solid on piano and guitar at an early
age, in a band at 12 (Radish) and had logged musical appearances on
Conan O’Brien and
Letterman before his 17th birthday. The critics all but
drooled on the guy.
But when I stuck his 2002 solo debut
Sha Sha in the player and sat back, a funny thing happened
— a really funny thing for someone who’s lauded the innocent
genius of any number of young-and-sincere singer-songwriter-savant
types. I hated it. Really, viscerally “yousucksucksuck” despised
it.
Notes from my first listen: “calculated sloppiness… not
even trying to hit the notes with his tone-deaf singing…
self-conscious composing geared for shock value… Zappaesque in
places but not half as funny…” Then I reached “In Other
Words” and noted “Ahh, here’s the good stuff, a quality,
thoughtful, melodic ballad free of affectations… before he
f*cks it up with that ridiculous, accelerated close. Why??”
Next-to-final thoughts: “if the jarring transitions were more
organic, they might be interesting — instead they feel pretentious
and manipulative.” And then, regarding closer “Falling”: “the best
track on the disc, a pretty piano tune with no sonic graffiti added
to screw it up. It’s about damn time.”
Yeah, those expectations can be murder. Need proof? Notes from
my second listen to that overrated, pretentious spaz Ben Kweller, a
full two weeks later:
“A brilliant pop alchemist. Charming, vulnerable, fearless, a
great sense of melody, totally uninhibited. ‘Sex reminds her of
eating spaghetti’… LOL. ‘Wasted and Ready’ matches French
horn and power chords like an exotic cocktail served in a
storefront dive. The closing jam on ‘In Other Words’ is a jarring,
cathartic emotional release of surprising power.”
Yeah, it’s starting to feel like that whole ”
I feel strongly both ways” thing
all over again. Must be something in the water this month. In any
case…
Kweller is as adept at rocking out on cuts like the rollicking
“Commerce, TX” and “Harriet’s Got A Song” as he is at tugging on
your heartstrings with earnest ballads. The place he sometimes
stumbles is in his insistence on keeping things raw at all times.
The lack of polish is part of what makes uptempo cuts like “Walk On
Me” and “Make It Up” fun — they sound like the giddy, sloppy early
takes from a teenager’s basement studio. But the lyrics veer
between clever and dopey, and the off-pitch singing on tracks like
“No Reason” crosses the line between endearing and annoying.
Just as young Ben’s act is starting to wear thin, though,
there’s the big finish, that lost Ben Folds number “Falling.”
Gorgeous, brilliant, wonderful, insert your own favorite
exclamation of musical joy here. Yeah, dammit, he is good, even if
it’s sometimes in spite of himself. Bottom line, I didn’t make the
Star-Struck Critics’ Hall of Fame, but I did get to know Ben
Kweller a little — and that’s a worthwhile endeavor.