Ben Folds / Nick Hornby - Lonely Avenue
How’s this for a concept album…? Nick Hornby (who is known for writing about music more than actually writing it) penned a set of lyrics before sending them over the interwebs for Ben Folds to write the music and melodies around. The hand of Hornby is evident as each song packs in a little story by itself (particularly the gorgeous Belinda and the vitriolic Levi Johnston’s Blues) however they fit remarkably well with Ben Folds’ own style of songwriting and scene-creation. So as a concept album it seems to work quite well… but it’s not quite up there with his best work.