- Critic score
- Publication
- By date
-
Folds is clearly having fun, but is he laughing with us or at us? Sometimes it's hard to tell. But it's even harder not to smile.
-
Q MagazineHis humour counteracts the widely held assumption that Americans don't do irony. Folds does little else, and he never sounds less than terribly pleased with himself. [Oct 2008, p.142]
-
Although he seems to have rediscovered his panache, the music supporting his narratives is still lacking the originality of his best work.
-
Folds is incapable of mediocrity, but Way to Normal comes way too close.
-
Way to Normal may win a few fans back who balked at the newfound sincerity that peppered his last two or three records, but a little more nuance and a lot less displaced teen angst would have made it palatable for everybody.
-
As a release for anyone else, this would be a well received and respected release. But for Ben Folds, whose first two solo outings were both phenomenal, he simply hasn’t lived up to expectations.
-
UncutFolds' third solo album is filled with songs about breakups, laced with some low-key experimentalism and, of course, a lot of keyboard pounding. [Nov 2008, p.94]
-
MojoFolds' leaps from satire to farce to domestic drama are part brilliant, part alarming, yet he still seems to wear wit and the manic energy of his voice as a carapace to conceal his soul. [Dec 2008, p.102]
-
Here, only a few moments stand out amidst the knee-jerk bitterness.
-
Folds has a gift for melody--nearly every song comes with a memorable hook--but his imagination as an arranger remains limited.
-
Under The RadarMuch of this album is a wash. [Fall 2008, p.75]
User score distribution:
-
Positive: 16 out of 21
-
Mixed: 4 out of 21
-
Negative: 1 out of 21
-
Jun 29, 2013