Okay, show of hands: Who here enjoyed Ben Folds somber, introspective pop songwriting following his stint with the Ben Folds Five? Okay, now who liked Ben Folds’ music with a dorky sense of humor?

According to this press release, Ben Folds may be splittign the middle with his upcoming album, Way To Normal.

From Big Hassle:

Epic Records is proud to announce the release of the much-anticipated new album from Ben Folds, WAY TO NORMAL, on September 30, 2008. The album, Folds’ third as a solo artist since the break up of the Ben Folds Five in 2000, was mostly recorded at his studio in Nashville and produced by Dennis Herring (Elvis Costello, Modest Mouse, The Hives). Featuring Folds on vocals and piano, Way to Normal also features long-time bassist Jared Reynolds and drummer Sam Smith as well as a guest vocal from indie pop heroine Regina Spektor on the album’s first single, “You Don’t Know Me.”

Way to Normal is an exuberant, raucous, and sometimes profane mix of sure-fire crowd-pleasers (”Hiroshima,” “Bitch Went Nuts,” and the frenetically fuzzed-out “Dr. Yang”), cheerful snark-fests (”The Frown Song,” “Brainwascht”), and thoughtful, moving ballads (”Cologne,” “Kylie From Connecticut”) that Folds wrote at the end of 2007 following the finalization of a two-year divorce.

But it should not be assumed that Way to Normal is Folds’ version of Marvin Gaye’s Here My Dear or Bob Dylan’s Blood on the Tracks (though Folds says that in the early stages of recording he came close to calling the album “Blood on the Keyboard”).

“The songs are not topical,” Folds says. “I was not interested in making a record about the D-word. I got all that stuff out of my system on the last record [2005's pensive Songs for Silverman], which was deliberately stoic. This new album is really about me being free, which is why it feels cathartic and expressive. It’s about me coming back to being myself.” (Hence the title.) “I came out of the courthouse, kissed the ground, and walked straight into the studio. I felt like a bottle of champagne that had been shaken for 18 months and popped open in the studio. That’s why this record has so much energy.”
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We recently interviewd Dr. Matt Destruction, the mustachioed bassist of The Hives. Their latest album, the Black And White Album, is my favorite from them yet, probably owing to its musical diversity (within the spectrum of garage rock, anyway). Dr. Matt was cool, and even through a series of bad connections and a mild language barrier (I had to explain what a pinky toe is, for example) we managed to get the goods out of him.

Check it out on our main site here.

Like most songs by The Hives, I have absolutely no idea what “Tick Tick Boom” is all about. Love Pelle Almqvist’s voice, but definitely think his lyrics need a bit of work. But whatever, I guess not everyone needs to be a Leonard Cohen. Actions speak louder than words anyway, and in their video for “tick Tick Boom” they are giants, they fuck the shit out of art and make big explosions and funny faces. Their new album, The Black and White Album, hits US shores Tuesday November 13th.