Ben Folds has gotten pretty darn lame lately. It can't be argued. However, his solo album "Rockin' The Suburbs" is actually really good. And though I probably shouldn't factor in his work with the Five, since this is just about the singers and not the bands, "Whatever And Ever Amen" is also good. And their self-titled release is actually great.
James Blunt is just crap. His lyrics, compositions, voice, all are bland bland bland. Well, not his voice. That's just annoying as fuck. His music is uninspired and pointless. Some of the songs on "Back To Bedlam" aren't too awful, but none of them are good enough to redeem the disc.
The Final Verdict: Ben Folds has lost a lot of steam lately. 2005's "Songs For Silverman" is easily the worst release he's put out, with the Five or without. Still, I'd still rather listen to that than James Blunt's 2005 crapola, "Back To Bedlam". Ben takes James out in the second round to an eruption of bored sounding "Yay, I guess." from the audience. Ben wins.
And as a sideshow, Ben Kweller gets his teeth knocked out by everyone on Earth for being a clinically-acclaimed Pavement copycat.
