Rockin’ the Sub­urbs (2001)

What a way to begin an album! Too bad this is track num­ber two. Quirky teenagers are a topic that never gets old. You know the kind. Phrases like “Jehovah’s Wit­ness”, “Wicca”, and “mar­i­juana” fol­low them around, often with­out cre­dence. These two mis­fits are spend­ing part of their day in a music store. Ben describes them by sub­trac­tion: “Zak with­out a ‘c’”, “Sara with­out an ‘h’”. Does this imply that they, as per­sons, are miss­ing some­thing fun­da­men­tal that would make them “nor­mal”? Or am I over-thinking it?

There’s no way to know until I can ask Ben Folds, him­self, on the 19^th.

lis­ten here