Way To Normal
by Ben Folds
  • Record Label: Sony
  • Release Date: Sep 30, 2008
User Score
7.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 21 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 21
  3. Negative: 1 out of 21

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  1. EddieHokie
    Jun 29, 2013
    8
    I like Ben Folds when he is fun. Lately he has been awfully serious.

    I get tired of critics expecting fun or angsty artists to mellow out in their 30's and 40's. They reprimand their music for being "amateurish" (allmusic.com quote) if they are still brash and bratty later in their years and that is what has happened here. Hiroshima, Dr Yang, Went Nuts, and Effington are really fun    I like Ben Folds when he is fun. Lately he has been awfully serious.

    I get tired of critics expecting fun or angsty artists to mellow out in their 30's and 40's. They reprimand their music for being "amateurish" (allmusic.com quote) if they are still brash and bratty later in their years and that is what has happened here.

    Hiroshima, Dr Yang, Went Nuts, and Effington are really fun songs and remind me of early Ben Folds. And he always has great ballads and Cologne and Kylie from Connecticut fit great.

    The rest is pretty blah and an EP of just the above songs would have been stellar. "You Dont Know Me" is an okay tune too

    I like this wayyy better than Songs For Silverman. I mean, great you made a song for your daughter. Who Cares? Sing it to her cause I sure don't know Gracie    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
62

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 11 out of 21
  3. Negative: 2 out of 21
  1. Hartford Courant
    60
    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.
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  2. Rolling Stone
    50
    Folds has a gift for melody--nearly every song comes with a memorable hook--but his imagination as an arranger remains limited.
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  3. The Boston Phoenix
    37
    Even Folds’s knack for a well-placed f-bomb has devolved into a lazy device masquerading as irreverence. His attitude may remain young at heart, but his irony’s over the hill.
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