Sha Sha: Ben Kweller: Amazon.ca: Music

1. How It Should Be (Sha Sha)

2. Wasted & Ready

3. Family Tree

4. Commerce, TX

5. In Other Words

6. Walk On Me

7. Make It Up

8. No Reason

9. Lizzy

10. Harriet's Got A Song

11. Falling

Product Description

From Amazon.com

In 1997, with dreamy Ozzie kiddos Silverchair at their commercial zenith and record labels seeing dollar signs, an unassuming pop-rock trio from Texas led by teenage singer-songwriter Ben Kweller sparked a bidding war. As the dust settled, Kweller's band Radish signed with Mercury and released Restraining Bolt; the stately New Yorker magazine weighed in with a profile; and the world had promptly rolled over and fell back to sleep. Sha Sha, Kweller's 2002 solo debut on Dave Matthews's ATO imprint, captures an understandably cynical but not entirely sour 20-year-old. While Sha Sha can be broadly described as melodic, somewhat rickety, frequently acoustic, piano-laced pop--think Ben Folds with less irony--there are some twisted shadings. "Walk on Me," with its propulsive beats and cascading piano line, is a whiny and wide-eyed plea for mercy to a nasty lover; "Wasted & Ready" is built on a series of preposterous rhyming couplets ("Sex reminds her of eating spaghetti / I am wasted but I'm ready") while "Harriet's Got a Song" sticks to a hard-soft formula, alternating between white-hot guitar licks and little tinkling bits. None of the tracks on Sha Sha screams megahit, but Kweller acquits himself as a unique songwriter nonetheless. --Kim Hughes

Chronique amazon.fr

Attention, petit génie en action ! Véritable surdoué de la pop de caractère, Ben Kweller a biberonné aux Beatles et aux Beach Boys. Nourri ainsi aux huiles essentielles, le garçon est devenu à son tour le créateur de chansons au miel. De Brooklyn (comme les Ramones) où il réside, il retient la rage mesurée et l’emportement réfléchi ("Wasted and Ready"), qui réalise l’équilibre et la dynamique nécessaire à toute pop song. De son Texas natal (comme ces autres génies de la pop que sont Cotton Mather), il possède ce talent d’écriture de textes précis et justes ("Family Tree"). Mais, avant tout, Ben Kweller affirme une personnalité trempée, dévouée à la mélodie. Avec des chœurs qui font "doudoudou" et "ouhouhouh". Bref, une réelle confiserie fine, du chewing-gum pour les oreilles, convoquant à l’occasion l’artillerie lourde ("Harriet’s Got A Song") et donnant le change avec juste une guitare acoustique ("Lizzy"). Ancien leader du groupe punk pop Radish alors qu’il avait juste 16 ans, Ben Kweller s’inscrit avec cet album dans la veine des Jason Falkner, Jonny Polonski, Brendan Benson et Elliott Smith. --José Ruiz

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Customer Reviews

100 Reviews

5 star:		(70)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(5)

Average Customer Review

4.5 out of 5 stars (100 customer reviews)

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4.0 out of 5 stars cool debut, May 12 2004

By

marty mcfly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

i'll be honest, i picked this up because evan dando's last record reminded me how good he was/is and the comparisons to the lemonheads drew me to ben kweller.

im not sure i would say that kweller is particularly similar to dando to listen to, nor even that the style is all that similar to the lemonheads, but there is something pop-ish and cheerful and wake me up with the sun on a sunday morning and set my feet to dancing because i love the world and cant get enough of this about it. its almost infectious its so cute.

it doesnt have the 'sing-along and sway with everyone' quality that dando sometimes generates, it is much more upbeat and none the worse for it. a very strong way to go solo and super music to cheer you up or keep you up or make you feel like the sun is on your back even though its raining outside. sounds a bit like badly drawn boy, the more i think about it, and thats not a bad thing either.

the sentiment is lemonhead-ish, thats what im trying to say.

i can only hope that there is a lot more to come because i suspect this is the first in a series of seriously cherished and overplayed albums (on my cd player anyway!).

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5.0 out of 5 stars Ridiculously Good, April 27 2004

By

Bob (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

Ben Kweller... where can you start with this guy? To be perfectly honest, I'm not sure why I bought this album looking back. It probably had to do with my love for Ben Folds and hearing about Kweller through the "Bens" project. When I went to buy the album, I wasn't sure what to expect, especially after seeing the cover shot of Ben brushing his teeth. But beyond the album cover is a musical voyage that takes you places that are somewhat recognizable but at the same time completely new and exciting.It's hard to describe how great this album is. It delivers on so many levels without really having any individual song that stands out. This album somehow captures it all. The undeniable talent of Kweller and the excellance that this album reaches really can be seen best by listening to this album the whole way through. I let a friend of mine listen to the album and the track he randomly picked was number 3, "Family Tree." He immediately wrote the album off as country. That's the beauty of this album, it's not country. Each song takes you somewhere new. The journey that a full listen from (1) "How it Should Be" to (11) "Falling" takes you so far across the grand spectrum of musical genres that you can't classify Ben and Sha Sha. The only classifciation for this young man's music is, well, good music. That's all you will find on Sha Sha. Whether it's the catchy hook and rock guitar on "Wasted and Ready" or the beauty of a simple, well written acoustic song like "Lizzy" or the piano driven songs that remind of us Ben Folds like "Falling" and "Make It Up," Ben Kweller finds away to touch so much on Sha Sha that you can't help listening to it again and again. A must buy for most music fans. At least give it a try. It's hard to be dissapointed with this album.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Sha Sha, April 3 2004

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"anap296" (Illinois) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

Wow, I love this album. I first heard Ben Kweller not too long ago in my sister's car. After hearing "Wasted and Ready", I had to listen to more of Ben Kweller. So I borrrowed the album, and I haven't stopped listening to it sinse. This music reminds me of Ben Folds crossed with Weezer (does anyone esle think he sounds like Rivers?) Anyway, I would recommend this album to anyone that enjoys good music. In my opinion, the best tracks are Wasted and Ready, In Other Words, and Falling. Enjoy!

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Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Ben really does rawk.
Ben Kweller is one of the finest muscians of his time. I love every single one of the hundreds of songs he's written. Sha Sha is just a sample of what this man is like. Read more

Published on Feb 7 2004

5.0 out of 5 stars A necessity.
Ben Kweller's debut solo lp is a masterpiece. Polishing grainy folk guitar with tinkling piano and a smooth voice, it's a far cry from his former punk-rock splendor in the band... Read more

Published on Jan 26 2004 by Hilary