Nick Hornby + Ben Folds = ♥ ♥ ♥

Nick Hornby is one of my favorite writers. Actually, he is one of my Top Five Favorite Writers (if you’re a fan too, you’ll appreciate that reference). I devour his novels – High Fidelity, About a Boy, Juliet Naked, et al. I enjoy his non-fiction too, especially when he writes about music. So I was thrilled in 2002 when Hornby published Songbook, a collection of essays on 31 songs that have been meaningful to him over the years. That book kept me happy for months – I was only familiar with about a third of the tracks Hornby wrote about. So I set out to find, listen to, and digest the rest of them. I have a hard time resisting an assignment like that.

Ben Folds’ “Smoke” – from the excellent 1995 album Whatever and Ever Amen was profiled in Songbook. I have to admit, I haven’t followed Folds very closely in the past decade and a half, but thanks to my friend Derek, I’ve gotten to know several of his subsequent songs – “All U Can Eat,” “Rockin’ The Suburbs,” “Landed.” I like Ben Folds – he’s clever, he’s literate, and he makes great pop songs. I should listen to him more.

Imagine my delight when I learned that Nick Hornby and Ben Folds had collaborated on an album, Lonely Avenue. Hornby wrote the lyrics and Folds composed and performed the music.

Critical response was mixed when the album debuted in September 2010, so I didn’t rush right out to purchase it. I didn’t want to be disappointed. But Lonely Avenue made it into my Christmas stocking, and finally last week, on a long drive, I had a chance to give it a listen.

When it comes to music, I am not quick on the uptake. The sounds may grab me right away, but I generally don’t begin to absorb the lyrics until Listen #3 or so. Still, after I’d heard all of Lonely Avenue once through, I wanted to hear it again immediately. It was catchy – and Hornby’s words already had started to trickle in.

The world according to Levi Johnston (Bristol Palin’s baby daddy).

The awkward relationship between a “live and let live guy” and his neighbor with the barking pit bulls and loud Metallica.

The notion that we all have soul mates who we’ve encountered but never actually met . . . yet we’re happy enough in the lives we’re living that maybe it doesn’t matter.

The one-hit-wonder who has to sing that old love song about his ex-wife at every concert.

The mother with her sick child in the hospital on New Year’s Eve. Man, that song just kills me. Thank god it has the tiniest bit of uplift at the end.


It’s one thing to write good lyrics. It’s another thing to match them up with appropriate and equally good music. Hornby and Folds have done this masterfully. With each listen, I catch more and more of the subtle layers – a word, a melodic nuance. I highly recommend this album.