New Music from 9/28/2010 - Mark Ronson & the Business International and Ben Folds & Nick Hornby

Mark Ronson & the Business International Record Collection - The mega-producer and sometimes solo artist releases his third studio album.  As usual, he teams up with an all-star crew of musical artists primarily to lend vocals to his songs.  On this album that crew, for some reason dubbed the Business International, includes Q-Tip, Boy George, Simon Le Bon, Nick Hodgson (Kaiser Chiefs), and D'angelo among the grocery list-length of performers.  I thought Ronson's last album, Version, was one of the sleeper albums of 2007 although the British didn't hide their love for it with three songs charting in their Top 10. 

While already giving a wide range of music in his previous albums, Record Collection even goes farther by incorporating and blending even more genres from Pop, Rap, Electronic, Rock and even a little Soul.  "The Bike Song" starts off like an electropop song with a very catchy hook and pleasing, if repetitive, vocals by Kyle Falconer (The View) but skews wildly wrong with a rap by Spank Rock.  Conversely, a song like "Lose It (In the End)" starts with western-style whistling that blends smoothly to an early ska sound straight out of a Madness album and then deftly melds in a rap by Ghostface Killah.  "Somebody to Love Me" has a super catchy melody that lends itself to soul/R&B music that is surprisingly well matched by the singing of Andrew Wyatt and Boy George.  There are a couple of purely electronic/instrumental songs as well ("The Color of Crumar," "Missing Words" and "Circuit Breaker"), with "Circuit Breaker" being the best with a drum-and-bass beat and house-y electronic sounds that is both engaging and danceable to.  There are also a number of  club ready songs that really play into Ronson's past producing successes like "Introducing the Business" and "Bang Bang Bang" (which has already been a Top 10 song on the British charts).  Ronson, with Alex Greenwald's (Phantom Planet) and Rose Elinor Dougall's help, even give us his version of a lullaby with "The Night Last Night" to end the album.

Ronson gives a wider reaching album than any of his previous releases by sampling from and emulating more musical genres than before while still managing to sound relatively upbeat.  However this album is not as good as Version because even though Ronson is sampling from a greater overall oeuvre of music, he doesn't bring the same magic to the songs.  The hooks aren't as catchy as they were on his last album and, overall, the album just isn't as strong from beginning to end.  There are still a number of outstanding songs on the album, it's just not as consistent in its excellence.  That's okay though.  Even Derek Jeter makes an out now and then.  Version was a homerun but this album still manages a double and that's nothing to sneeze at.  

Score: 7.5/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Bang Bang Bang" and "Somebody to Love Me"

Ben Folds & Nick Hornby Lonely Avenue - Okay, you got me.  I saw this album and had to review it.  A new album with singer-songwriter Ben Folds composing the music wasn't surprising but novelist Nick Hornby (High Fidelity and About a Boy) providing all the lyrics was a real shocker.  Sure, the man showed his vast knowledge of music in High Fidelity--one chapter of the book will show you that--but does he have the skills to write compelling lyrics even with the help of the talented Ben Folds backing him???   That was the million dollar question and I won't even charge you a cent for the answer.

Hornby's lyrics are written in a very structured manner with too much detail making most of the songs sound like something you'd hear progressing the story in a modern musical rather than sounding like a modern rock song.  The first song, "A Working Day," is a fine example of the lengthy and lumbering lyrics.  "Some guy on the net/thinks I suck/and he should know/he's got his own blog" is somehow supposed to transition to the awkward chorus of "I'm a loser and a poser/it's over, it's over/I need it and I quit/Everything I write is shit."  If you thought that sounded clunky written out, let me assure it's just as forced in the actual song.  Regrettably, no matter what type of song Folds attempts to create with the music, the structure and wording of the lyrics makes the songs sound off.  "Your Dogs" is a notable exception with Folds jaunty piano playing and singing helping to infuse some life into the album.

Unfortunately a great knowledge of modern music plus the talent of a very skilled fiction writer does not equate to great song lyrics by Mr. Hornby.  This album is an interesting experiment but not one that leads to a great revelation.  Folds does what he can to turn the lengthy lyrics into credible songs but most of them still sound like something from one of The Who's rock operas.  Music lyrics by their very nature have a freedom to them that allow you to play with how they should be said or stated grammatically in order to better fit the melody of the song.  A typical pop or rock song also often repeats certain phrases in a chorus or a refrain to bridge and help create hooks to catch the attention of the listener.  Hornby and Folds' songs are more like little stories with backing music.  There is just a clunkiness to too many of the songs' lyrics that, even with the orchestral talents of Ben Folds, causes the music on the album to be more distracting than pleasing.

Score:  4/10
Song(s) to Sample: "Your Dogs"