Ben Folds - Supersunnyspeedgraphic

by Joanna Booth

Like orange peel or cheese rind, an album's offcuts rarely make an appetising meal

"What should you do with those bitty songs that didn’t make it on to the album? Bin them? Or release them and bank the proceeds?"

Being a pop star is more complicated than being a hairdresser for a number of reasons. The one that concerns us today is the small matter of off-cuts. Happy clippers the world over have no need to debate the fate of the bits of hair that don’t make the grade. Musicians have a harder decision to make. What should you do with those bitty songs that didn’t make it on to the album? Bin them? Or release them and bank the proceeds?

Ben Folds has taken the process up a notch. He released off-cut material on three internet-only EPs as he went along in 2003. Now he’s gathered up the rats tails and woven a wig from it to re-release as an LP – with the addition of an odd B-side, cover version, and a song he wrote for the DreamWorks children’s movie Over The Hedge (in which William Shatner voices a possum). Remastered versions, my arse.

Disregarding the moral objection of making fans buy things twice, "additional material" albums tend to suffer from the congenital defect of having no overriding theme, binding or characteristics. They are, quite literally, all over the place. Unfortunately 'Supersunnyspeedgraphic' is not one of the honourable exceptions to this rule. It all feels rather half-hearted. The familiar Ben Fold ingredients are all here – hammering pianos, quick-quipped lyrics, vocals that somehow always smack of little-boy-lost – but often they feel a little flat. Some tracks are weaker than others. ‘Adelaide’ is particularly scrappy, and ‘Learn To Live With What You Are’ tips over from appealingly teenagerish to facile. And ‘Still’ sounds like a song from a kids’ film.

To give Folds his due, there are peaks to equal the troughs. ‘Rent-A-Cop’ is a big, drawling, horn-filled jamboree with lashings of tambourines. The joyfully stabbing bass line of ‘There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You’ heralds the increasingly cartoonish sounds of this track – there is some great kazoo action towards the end. ‘Bruised’ is a pensively blue, satisfyingly self-indulgent ballad. 

For all his undeniable talent, Folds appears to have a huge blind spot when it comes to covers. It feels like a mate should have stepped in and said, "Gee Ben, I’m not entirely sure that you singing Dre’s ‘Bitches Ain’t Shit’ is going to be as amusing as you think. Maybe it’ll just be really cringeworthy." But either no one did or Ben ignored them, and here we are with a sphincter-tighteningly awful rendition of the very track. Opener ‘In Between Days’ is a pale Cure pastiche, and even ‘Songs Of Love’ sounds like a Divine Comedy tribute band. The only cover which rivals the quality of the original is ‘Get Your Hands Off My Woman’ by The Darkness. But that’s because it’s still a pile of shit.

Another casualty of the off-cut album curse hits the salon floor with a resounding crump. Shave your head Ben, and go and write another good album. We know you’ve got it in you.

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