Great song lyrics are almost impossible to master. And that’s before they’ve even been weaved into a perfect melody. When the two come together it’s alchemy. Some songwriters only manage it once in their lifetimes. We have a name for them. Hands up who knows what it is.

Writing a great lyric seems like it should be so simple, like poetry except dumber. I mean, who couldn’t write: “I woke up this morning, smiled at the rising sun, three little birds, sat on my doorstep, singing sweet songs…”

The answer is nobody. Nobody except Bob Marley, one morning in Kingston Town, who for a brief moment managed to capture perfect happiness, bottle it up and put it in a song.

Some musicians instinctively know that although they’ve got melodies on tap, the lyrics are best left to someone else. Elton John has never written a single word, leaving it up to his writing partner Bernie Taupin who penned nearly all of the classics. Lyrics are a huge responsibility and just one wrong move, one brief flirtation with schmaltz, can bring a song to its knees.

Which is why it makes sense that Ben Folds should entrust lyric writing duties to the novelist Nick Hornby. Many of his novels are informed by a deep love of music, the most famous of which being the music geek classic, High Fidelity, which later became a movie starring John Cusack. He also once said that he only writes books because he doesn’t know how to write songs, so this is his chance to get involved in the elusive songwriting process.

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Ben Folds is a brilliant tunesmith who once proclaimed that he’d be a far more efficient songwriter if he didn’t have to bother with lyrics (which he is excellent at). So you have the wit and social awareness of Hornby combined with the unquestioned musicianship of Folds. What could possible go wrong? There are no guarantees with experiments like this, but this seems to be a partnership made in heaven.

One song that immediately stands out is Levi Johnston’s Blues. Would you believe that this is a song about the Sarah Palin’s unsuspecting son-in-law who was thrust into the limelight for knocking up her daughter, Bristol. The opening verse goes:

Woke up this morning, what do I see? 3,000 cameras pointed at me.
Dude says, “You Levi?” I’m like, “Yes, that’s me sir.”
“Well you just knocked up the VP nominee’s daughter…”
So I tell them “No, you got it wrong mister. Already got a girl and her name is Bristol.”
They all laugh and say “Where you been sonny? Your mother in law’s a heart beat from the presidency.”

The chorus lyrics are taken from his Facebook profile (which has since been removed for obvious reasons):

I’m a f*ckin red neck, I live to hang out with the boys, play some hockey, do some fishin’ and kill some moose. I like to shoot the shit, do some chillin’ I guess. You f*ck with me and I’ll kick your ass.

So it immediately becomes clear that these are two very smart people, finding songwriting gold in the most unlikely of places. The Levi Johnston song is actually quite sympathetic to the guy. I mean, he was basically just minding his own business. Another beauty is the song Password, about a guy trying to crack his girlfriend’s computer password: You used to have a dog called MONTY… You have a thing for David BLAINE.

What’s cool is how Ben Folds interpreted the songs musically. Hornby apparently just emailed the lyrics to him and the rest was up to him. “Password” could easily have been an up-tempo number, but it’s turned out as a slow R&B tune in the mould of a 70’s era classic.

This is diamond of an album for music geeks and your basic music lovers alike. Even if you don’t listen to it all that hard, it still sounds great and comes highly recommended.

G-MAN