Ben’s newest opus, Lonely Avenue, drops September 28 on Nonesuch Records. Departing from the Sony/Epic label that he’s been with since the second Ben Folds Five record, Whatever and Ever Amen, the album represents a collaboration between Folds and the author Nick Hornby, who penned the lyrics, to which Ben wrote music. String arrangements are by well-known pop arranger Paul Buckmaster, who also arranged for Elton John, David Bowie and Leonard Cohen. The album has been sequenced and mastered, specifically as a work to be listened to in the LP format (two-sided, approximately 25 minute sets) and will be released in a variety of formats including audiophile vinyl LP (mastered at Abbey Road Studios and pressed in Germany at Pallas Manufacturing) and CD in addition to the now customary digital downloads, plus there will be a special edition including four short stories written by Hornby. And, Ben confirms that there will be a tour. Read the press release and more at the Nonesuch Records site.
Lonely Avenue
Lonely Avenue
Chicago audiences get album preview
Ben reports he’ll be playing the new album, a couple tracks at a time, for the audiences at the shows at the Vic Theatre in Chicago this week (April 19, 20 and 21). Two tracks will be played before and two after each show over the sound system, so over three nights all 12 tracks in sequence will be played. (In order to hear all 12, you’d need to attend all 3 shows.)
Folds/Hornby project update
Recording is finished for the Ben Folds/Nick Hornby collaboration and the tracks have been sequenced. Ben plans to finish mastering it after the tour. The album name has yet to be determined also, but the track names are:
- Working Day
- Picture Window
- Levi Johnston’s Blues
- Your Dogs
- Doc Pomus
- Practical Amanda
- Claire’s Ninth
- Password
- From Above
- Saskia Hamilton
- Belinda
- Belindaaaaaaaah
