The sun was shining, lots of nice CDs had arrived, the coffee was tasting particularly fine this morning and then - aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh - this news just in: Ben Folds has pushed back the release of his next album into 2005 in order to dedicate his time to William Shatner's upcoming collection 'Has Been'.
The new Shatner album has been produced and in the main written by Folds, and the singer will be touring with the actor to promote its release. Folds explains: "It is a great record and it is really worth going out and doing some shows in major cities.[Shatner] is not a musician at all - he's not rapping or singing - but he is still part of the music. I've never heard a record quite like it."
On the as yet untitled new album Folds continued: "Right now, it doesn't feel like an album that has a title. I think because the songs are basic enough to me, it almost has a debut solo artist feel to it. It seems less like a tangent to me in the songs and the production than [last album] 'Rockin' the Suburbs' [Folds' last studio disc], which seems like an over-the-top pop kind of album. This doesn't seem like a direction to me, it just seems like songs I wrote and they are approached much more from the piano and with a little more of a live, rougher edges, feel."
Whatever, we can't wait for it to arrive.