Nick Hornby, one of my favorite authors (About a Boy, High Fidelity, A Long Way Down), collaborated with Ben Folds to create an album. Hornby wrote the lyrics, Folds wrote and sang the music, and then voila, an album named Lonely Avenue. The album should be released around September 28th, and while it seems unusual to have a novelist writing music, many of his novels heavily involve music. Juliet, Naked is all about an album and the following of a once-famous musician. High Fidelity is about a record shop, in About a Boy the main character’s dad created a famous song, and he is living off the royalties. Songbook is comprised of essays written about songs that influenced Hornby’s life. As you can see, Hornby’s interest in music is often at the forefront of his writing. If you’re not into reading, enjoy his movies instead- he wrote the screenplay for An Education (for which he received an Oscar nomination) and wrote Fever Pitch, About a Boy, and High Fidelity.

Ben Folds writes his own music and plays the piano usually, but he can also play the bass and drums. He originally was in the band Ben Folds Five, then went on to pursue a solo career- buy my favorite album of his, Rockin’ the Suburbs, on Amazon here. I love his whimsical ability to create anything (and I mean anything) just with a simple lyric. They wrote the album Lonely Avenue in three days, and I can’t wait to hear the rest. I think this unique collaboration will be comedic and amazing at the same time. Pre-order it on Amazon here so you have it on September 28th.

The first song is written about the one and only Levi Johnston, listen to it here!

-Whitney J. Manson