Search - Ben Folds :: Landed

Worth it for "Side Of The Road" (3.5 stars)

wellwellwell | bog | 07/19/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Although I consider myself to be a huge Ben Folds fan, I didn't get into his latest solo effort, Songs For Silverman, all that much. I feel "Landed" is a terrific song--the best song on the album and probably a top ten of Ben's solo career (thus far); and had "Side Of The Road" been on there as well, those two songs would've easily been the two best. However, "Side Of The Road" happens to be a Lucinda Williams cover, and cover songs usually don't make it onto albums. So that's why this single becomes essential. Or does it?



At one point you could get a 10-track bonus disc (dubbed Songs For Goldfish), from Ben's website, when you bought Songs For Silverman. It featured this Lucinda cover as well as eight live tracks (including the two versions here--"There's Always Someone Cooler Than You" and "Rockin' The Suburbs") and a 1-minute Tokyo radio introduction thing. I'm not sure if that deal is still available, but I'd highly recommend that over this if it is. Otherwise, the song "Side Of The Road" needs to be in your Ben Folds/Five collection... so get this. It is an unbelievably good song by Lucinda Williams, sung beautifully by Ben Folds."