ALBUM REVIEW – BEN FOLDS: SLEIGHER: Silent Radio

“Sleigher” certainly has to be the best track ever for a Christmas album. While it conjures mischievous ideas of what a festive album from the thrash metal titans might sound like (think hard-hitting versions of “White Christmas”), Ben Folds’ take on the genre is more traditional but well thought out. It’s a record full of reflection, memory and the passage of time, a realization that Christmas can be as much about family concerns as it is about childhood joy. This is particularly evident in his five gentle and upbeat new songs, which make up the album alongside two instrumental pieces and reinterpreted versions of three standards.

The album begins with the atmospheric piano instrumental “Little Drummer Bolero,” which could be seen as a prelude to what follows, although it develops a neoclassical grandeur. A charming trio of original songs follows. “Sleepwalking Through Christmas” has the makings of a standard with piano, wistful harmonica, relaxed vocals and sleigh bells. The details place it in the modern world (“I run to the toilet with my phone“), but it is universal and timeless in its themes of drifting through life in a haze, succumbing to simple lies, and how the truth is the greatest gift of all.

“Me and Maurice” is a soulful ballad embellished with strings and finds Folds in a particularly fine voice. In his depiction of the air pump Santas “everyone lies face up in their yards / frozen and deflated / hungover and sad“, it captures the kitschy elements of Christmas and how it is so often a time of disappointment and thwarted dreams, but somehow its rituals are irresistible.

“Christmas Time Rhyme” is blessed with a chorus and chorus that is uplifting in spirit, even if its observations are rather cautious (“Someone’s driving around in his mid-life crisis Trans-Am / and I’m in the corner taking a sip.“) The song combines elements of swing standards, Nilsson’s “Everybody’s Talkin”, organ and harmonica sounds with the chaos of kinship (“You’re all fucking freaks / but we’re family.”) The first side is surrounded by instrumental pieces and ends with the short “Waiting For Snow”.

Side two begins with a duet “We Could Have This,” with Folds accompanied by Lindsey Kraft. It captures the joy and pain of relationships, although the melody and string section are overly sweet and syrupy. The order of the album is questionable. The fact that three of the last four songs were cover versions could indicate that Folds had run out of ideas of his own. Although he reinterprets these standards to some extent, they are faithful enough to the originals to be comfortable enough without being baffling. However, they slide down just as easily as a well-mixed cocktail. Mel Torme and Robert Webb’s “The Christmas Song” gets a laid-back jazz guitar, understated piano accompaniment and a harmonica break, while Burt Bacharach’s “The Bell That Couldn’t Jingle” begins with a choir and continues smoothly. Sandwiched between the covers is “Xmas Aye Eye,” for which R. Bot receives co-authorship. It begins with Folds dating it to May 26th, lining up the clavinet and drum machine before giving the artificial intelligence instructions to help him construct lyrics for a Christmas song. The words sound deliberately confused and unnatural (“You’re the star at the top of my Christmas tree, baby. / So that it rhymes every time at Christmas time.”) Rhythmically it differs from the traditional approach of his other songs and is reminiscent of Paul McCartney’s then futuristic outlier “Temporary Secretary”. The album ends on a friendly note with a version of The Mills Brothers’ “You Don’t Have To Be A Santa Claus”, treated as an infectiously old-fashioned singalong.

Overall, “Sleigher” is a mixed bag. The three new Folds songs on side one are excellent additions to the pantheon of Christmas songs. “Xmas Aye Eye” is a hugely entertaining release, but while the covers and instrumentals are far from unpleasant, they act as pleasant padding. It leaves the impression that it would have been more satisfying as a highly selective EP.

Ben Folds: Sleigher – Out Now (New West Records)

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I edited the long-running fanzine Plane Truth and subsequently wrote for a number of publications. While the zine was known for championing the edgiest independent sounds, performing with a community samba percussion band in recent years has helped broaden my tastes, making me far more of an eclectic one in 2021 Mixture of sounds and rave about Made Kuti, Anthony Joseph, Little Simz and the Soul Jazz Cuban Compilations as well as Pom Poko and Richard Dawson.