If I am to approximate it to the nearest round number, I’ve been making out to the sounds of Ben Kweller for nearly ten years. In that time, though he’s been to to my town on at least five separate occasions, I’ve never actually managed to make it down to one of his shows. Last night I did, and it was glorious. It’s quite amazing that our brain holds on to certain pieces of memory for longer and more intensely than others. I’ve heard a lot of music with a lot more social currency than Texas’ favourite Jewish kid since I was first introduced to Kweller by an ex-girlfriend in high school. But somehow, no matter what the man busted out in the dreary confines of another rainy Friday night, the words did not escape me. In perfect order, the strange and wonderful ramblings of a slacker who used to be in a band called Radish escaped my lips and I was once again overtaken by the power of music. Also, I have secretly always loved Ben Kweller. He’s kickass, earnest and loveable all at the same time, and the guy could write his way out of a paper bag, particularly if that paper bag was a pop song. To my mind, his best work came from his first two records, and the best songs on each of those were the closers. ‘Falling’, which bookends the magnificently quirky Sha Sha is such a song. It’s not overly complicated, it’s not particularly simple, but it’s the chicken soup of alternative pop balladry; it’ll always make you feel a bit better.
Like the other singer-songwriters he shares a first name with (Folds, Lee), Ben Kweller is a multi-talented guy. He can rock out on a piano just as quickly as the electric guitar which he’s become famous for, and has a tremendously clear, teenage boy-before-it-cracks voice that hasn’t wavered one bit with age. The fact that he seems confortable living in an octave range which most men can only achieve in falsetto doesn’t stop Kweller from moving around and testing his limits. In ‘Falling’, it’s the bits where he drops down to his vulnerable ‘man’ range that has the most resonance, wavering and unsure against the strong push of his regular one. In a persona that’s usually marked out by witty non sequiturs and slacker guitar stylings, even when he’s being extra-romantic, Kweller shooting straight is a rare gem, and having the rich tones of a grand piano augmenting his melody certainly helps. It’s not that I don’t like the other stuff, but the tunes that loop a simple, pretty refrain against a descending chord line are the ties that bind, y’know.
Simple premise; BK doesn’t feel like he’s falling in love, but he is. Not a huge revelation, but we’re taking the long and winding road to get there, through some nice ’70s pop structure and production and extra pounding for the turnaround. There are many amazing things about this song, whether it’s the slight delay Kweller puts on the end of the chorus (‘just say hello to..the….ground’), the Beach Boys-esque ‘Bah bah bah’s that follow or the high drama middle section which seemingly comes out of nowhere before relaxing back into the groove. And yeah, the bass and the drums are totally naff, chugging along like it’s a made for black and white TV performance, but sometimes that’s just what they’re supposed to do. The real focus remains on Ben’s voice from start to finish, that same voice that’s been lying dormant in my head since the early wonder years when my voice was just as high as his and all I wished for was for it to go down. The sense of nostalgia doesn’t only come from my history with this piece of music, it’s also the fact that thematically and in general feel, it kind of sounds like a classic. Which makes it a very good thing to unwittingly commit to memory.
Ben Kweller – ‘Falling’
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