Pros: Very light alternative placed between Ween and Weezer...
Cons: ...that really has no real standout hit.
The Bottom Line: If you don't mind the sometimes silly lyrics, you'll find a really relaxing, enjoyable album in Sha Sha. Buy this album, you freaks... buy it now.
All too often record companies hype up a band for little or no reason, banking on their band being the next big thing. So was the case of the 15-year old Ben Kweller's band, Radish, and with all the hype came little result. And most often with hype comes an overwhelming feeling of disappointment when the results aren't up to snuff. So was the case with Radish: Restraining Bolt. It was the Star Wars: Phantom Menace or Sony Playstation 2 of its time. Critics blasted it. But, unlike the two disappointments I mentioned, this criticism seemed rather unfair.
Skip ahead to 2002... Radish has since been sliced, diced and all that's left is frontman Ben Kweller. This time, with no hype and no pressure, he produces what, in my opinion, is the best CD released thus far in 2002.
Grab yourself a load of feel-good 70's pop. Take a bit of Cake, mix in a dash of Ween, a little of the quirky but brilliant lyrics that could come from Juliana's Pony and top off with a heaping helping of Ben Folds and a sprinkle of Weezer and you have yourself a nice Ben Kweller salad. And then, because you're a freaking psycho, wash, rinse, repeat.
Ben Kweller: Sha Sha starts off with the very light, piano-accompanied "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)," a brief but thoroughly enjoyable little song that gets to the point and, while running under two minutes, makes Blink 182 seem like it's a wordy, filler band. When they're actually just a filler band. And a bad one at that.
Choice lyrics: "That's right... that's how it should be. Sha Sha. Sha doo."
The reason my friends look at me blankly:
Well, ever since I first downloaded this song, I've been responding with "sha sha" whenever I'd want to say something to the effect of "that's how it should be."
Basically, I'm trying to get this saying into the mainstream like Dude, Where's My Car? got "shibby" to be said by your average person. And, luckily, I know just about as many people as the number of people who watched that stupid movie, so it just might work. Of course, they all have higher intelligence than your average movie-goer who saw that (though, I, too, fell victim to it... damn stupid ex-girlfriend), so they may be harder to coax into using a stupid word. Next attempt? Subliminal messages.
Anyway, sha sha, the next song is "Ready and Wasted." For some reason, this is the song that has generated the most buzz out of the whole CD. And, frankly, most people have just been uptight due to the whole "wasted but I'm ready" lyric and the fact that the song is titled "Ready and Wasted."
Choice lyrics: She goes above and beyond her call of duty.
She is a slut, but X thinks it's sexy.
Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti.
I am wasted, but I'm ready.
The choice lyrics are actually the chorus. Anyhow, having actually downloaded and burnt the CD from MP3's I found off of Audiogalaxy, I was a little disappointed when I got the actual CD. My favorite touch, sha sha, from the version I had was that this song had a small "Silent Night" riff thrown in, but that was taken away in the CD version. Looks like I can't play frisbee with the burnt copy, after all.
See, kids... you may be able to download CDs before you could buy them, but you may never know what you're missing if you don't buy them. MP3's are bad. And cigarettes. And drugs. Eat Wheaties!
Moving onto track 3, you've got "Family Tree." And, well, what can I say? This is, in my opinion, the best song on the CD as it has a very Beatles/John Lennon feel and sound to it without coming off too, uh, I don't know... Oasis.
The only problem is that my parents are now rocking out to this song... making me feel like I've become soft. Like me becoming a Juliana Hatfield fanatic wasn't a warning sign.
Basically, if you're a fan of the above mentioned bands, chances are you'll actually enjoy this song. Just ask my 'rents. It shows Ben Kweller and melodies go hand and hand down the beach and sometimes, when the melody gets down, Ben carries it. You know, like that "Footprints" thing that's in every non-Satan worshipping household in the world.
Remember that sprinkle of Weezer I mentioned? Alright, break it out, as this song, "Commerce, TX," brought back a little of that Pinkerton feeling. A nice, faster paced song that shows Kweller can rock out almost as well as he can keep a melody. Not hard rock, mind you, but enough to where his guitar strings may need replaced some time in the next decade.
Follow that up with "In Other Words," one of two songs that sounded significantly different than the version I originally had. This could probably even pass for an Elton John song or, you know, anyone else who can hold a song together a nice piano melody with the occasional support of other instruments (including a cello, drums, violin and banjo?). "In Other Words" proves, yet again, that Kweller knows how to compose a melody like very few songwriters today can.
"Walk on Me," track six, has a feel that's an early 70's folk song mixed with a bit of 50's doo-wap and the new decade's stupidity with "mega-ultra sad" actually being a predominant lyric. Still, a quite enjoyable song, even if slightly campy sounding due to "mega-ultra sad."
But, this CD doesn't take itself too seriously. That doesn't mean it's silly a la Weird Al Yankovic or They Might Be Giants but in a Ween way. And, though I'm not cutting up on the former bands, it's good to be like Ween. Sha sha.
"Make It Up" is the closest this CD comes to having filler, but still a enjoyable little ditty. With that said, though, I really can't think of anything worth mentioning good or bad. What I can say, though, is this is the other song that sounds significantly different than the version I downloaded. With a moment of reverb and a whole new verse, this song turned out way better than what I was used to hearing.
As a matter of fact, I'm listening to it right now and feel that I should really retract that "filler" comment. The CD version is actually a pretty strong song while the one I was used to hearing was fairly weak. Um... yeah, that's what I get for trying to do something off memory.
Quite possibly, "No Reason" may be the most Weezer sounding song, if it weren't for Kweller referring to himself as "BK," it might be even easier to confuse the two. As for the song itself, well, I geek out for Weezer so what makes you think I wouldn't geek out for this song?
And, in the tradition of every 80's hairband trying to get groupies to sleep with them, there's a love ballad to be found in "Lizzy."
Okay, not really a love ballad, but it does sound like quite the personal song. Whoever Lizzy is (my guess is Liz Smith, as she's mentioned in the CD insert as a photographer and as the first person in Kweller's "Thank You" list) she means an awful lot to Kweller and it shows in the song. It's happy but sad, thankful but remorseful, and all about being with someone but being lonely on the road at the same time.
A little play of words comes in the form of "Harriet's Got a Song." While this song sounds nothing like "Janie's Got a Gun," it does seem like a bit of an homage, in title at least. It's very verse-chorus-verse, but still another very listenable song.
As for the final track on the album, "Falling," it's another example of how to close an album. "Falling" doesn't stray from the theme of the CD. It doesn't try for an overambitious end to the CD that makes you almost wait for a "to be continued in the next CD" like far too many albums today do. Instead, it stays light, remains true to the rest of the CD and is strong enough to give you closure to the CD.
Sure, you will crave more and no one really knows when you'll get it... or if you will. But, for now, take solice in the fact that you may have just found the best CD of the year while everyone else just listens to the reprocessed garbage that passes for modern rock.
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.