a not so lonely avenue

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If you asked me who my favorite current author was, I would quickly shout back, “Nick Hornby!” without a moment of hesitation. You can blame my enthusiasm on either my lack of time for an extensive reading list, or just the fact that I’ve never laughed so hard out loud as I do when I read his books. My first real-life LOL was on a train to Germany and I was reading, High Fidelity in the summer of 2001. I’d yearned to read it since I had seen John Cusack on Letterman discussing the book, and I distinctly remember Letterman saying how amazing it was. I was shocked that he even read books, but figuring our tastes in humor to be quite similar, I was intrigued.
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And I wasn’t disappointed. In fact, I’m sure everyone on the train thought I was a lunatic American as I laughed while reading silently to myself. Heck, my sorority sister/traveling companion sitting beside me thought I was… she chose a much safer Pride and Prejudice to enjoy. But I cherish that reading moment… the ones where you’re so engulfed in the book, you remember where you were when you read it. (Like reading Jurassic Park while camping in Yosemite as a kid…) Anyhow, I quickly ate up the rest of his published fiction works (About A Boy, Fever Pitch, How to be Good) and the rest as they came out along the years (A Long Way Down, Slam & Juliet,Naked) with just as much enthusiasm as the first. And the movie versions? Some of my favorite indulgences in front of the TV.
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So when I heard about this crazy collaboration that Nick Hornby was doing with one of my favorite lyrical performers, Ben Folds, my mind was pretty much blown. Ben Folds singing along to Nick Horby’s stories? WHAT? INSANE?!? Yet so darn awesome!
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Watch the video above for the first single, “From Above” and I’m certain your mind will relax and expand if you’ve been used to listening to HITS 1 like I have. A storyline, lyrics that make sense (seriously Ke$ha!), and a catchy beat? I thought it was all but lost in modern pop music. But thank god it’s not!
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Here’s a compilation of the reviews of Lonely Avenue… and you can purchase the album in MP3, Vinyl and CD form here. AND… you can listen the album in its full version on MSN right now as well.
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p.s. “Working Day” has some silly lyrics regarding bloggers that some of you may get a chuckle at
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