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The title track, however, is a classic, even if it borders dangerously on novelty; it's half tribute and full laceration of the rap-rock scene, and one of the funniest songs to come down the pipe in years. Take your pick as to whom the song is really about with lines like "Y'all don't know what it's like / Being male, middle class and white," (my guess: all of them). But Folds really sticks it to them in terms of subject matter ("All alone in my white boy pain / Shake your booty while the band complains") and actual musicianship ("I take the checks and face the facts / That some producer with computers fixes all my shitty tracks") The song is an open letter to all of these Angry White Males, asking, "What could you possibly be so unhappy about?" I'm curious to hear the answer. However, the fun stops there. For those who are into said rap-rock and get the title track's joke, be advised that the rest of the album is vintage Folds, which owes more to Burt Bacharach than Korn. Take "Losing Lisa," a gorgeous, bouncy 1960s-era lounge pop ode to a newly ex-girlfriend, or "The Ascent of Stan," a lament about a radical who sold out ("First you wanted revolution / Now you're the institution / How's it feel to be the man?"). What brings the album down, however, is not the lack of non-stop laughs but slow-as-molasses buzz killer ballads like "Fred Jones Part 2," or songs like "Carrying Cathy," a very pretty tune but way too similar to "Selfless, Cold and Composed," from Ben Folds Five's second album, Whatever and Ever, Amen. Grant Folds some slack, though. This is his first solo album, and from the sound of it he had a few things left over from his tenure fronting the Five that wound up clashing slightly with his new material. This may be a misstep, but even his mistakes are better than some people's best work. ~David Medsker dmedsker@bullz-eye.com
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