Sha Sha

Ben Kweller | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 5, 2002)
• Original Release Date: 2008
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Ato Records / Red
• ASIN: B0010VHXNK
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (121 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #239,489 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Note to Ben: Keep doing your own thing, honey., May 13, 2002

By 

Beth Ringsmuth "bethringsmuth" (Saint Cloud, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

If Ben Folds' "Rocking the Suburbs" album is a glossy, new issue of Spin magazine, Ben Kweller's album "Sha Sha" is a handmade, personalized 'zine from a good friend.

From the opening piano on "How It Should Be (Sha Sha)" to the last "Ahh"s and "Ba ba"s on "Falling," Ben Kweller is amazing. Maybe this is because he's my age (20-ish), and multi-talented (guitarist/pianist/lyricist), but he just gets my goose with this album. I bought it after seeing him open for Dashboard Confessional in March, and I thought he was adorable. After the show, I hugged him, and the boy hugs tightly! Listening to this album is like that hug: it grabs you by surprise and it just won't let go until it's ready.

"Wasted and Ready," "Commerce, TX," "In Other Words," and "Harriet's Got a Song" are my current favorites, but all the other songs are great, too. Some songs rock, some songs are mellow, but they're all catchy and interesting.

Bottom line: If you like Ben Folds, Rufus Wainwright, even the Get Up Kids, you're bound to enjoy Ben Kweller.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars This kid has potential, November 19, 2002

By 

Johnny NYC - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

It's a little funny that everybody who talks about Ben Kweller remarks on his age and treats him like a young savant. In reality, he's been around for years and his band Radish was supposed to be an alt-rock institution by now. Sadly, their debut came just as the now-dying teenybopper pop movement conquered the mainstream. Ben Kweller's Radish lost the game before they even started.

On his own now, Ben Kweller has a great chance to bring listeners back to rock and roll. Though his songs have an indie-rock edge, he's such a melodic savant that every single track is catchy. The first single, "Wasted and Ready," sounds like it should have topped charts five years ago, but after a half-decade of manufactured pop it's fresh once more. There are plenty of winners here, like the almost-alt-country "Family Tree," the lovely piano rock of "In Other Words" and the Beatles-esque throwback "Walk on Me."

Ben Kweller often sounds very familiar. You'll hear Beck, Ben Folds, Ozma and plenty of older rock mainstays in this album. You could accuse him of merely imitating others' success, but Kweller sounds like these musicians producing their best work. And he sounds like he's just getting started. Buy this album, enjoy it, and keep an eye on Ben Kweller to see if he lives up to the potential that's on display all over this album.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars this cd is like a breath of fresh air, March 15, 2002

By 

"hellbomb" (El Cerrito, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Sha Sha (Audio CD)

I too (like one of the reviewers above) just heard Ben Kweller play as the opening act for Dashboard Confessional and The Anniversary - just last night, in fact! And although I was there to see the headliners and their music was awesome, the real standout of the show to me was BK. I bought his CD at the show and listened to it over and over on the way home and this morning.
You've got to see this kid play live, I think, to appreciate the love-at-first-sight&sound thing that happened to me, but I was thrilled when I listened to the album and realized that even without being able to see the shaggy bowl cut and beautifully unselfconscious rockstar theatrics, all of his excitement and passion and musicianship comes across. It's infectious and wonderful.
BK is pretty much uncategorizable, which is part of what's so great about the music, but there are strains of really, really early Elton John, a little bit of Cat Stevens, definitely some Ben Folds, some skillfully spare guitar, some gorgeous piano, shreds of Beach Boys pop sensibility, and some really beautiful lyrics - often clever, sometimes perfectly placed to cut through some of the intensity of the music and keep it from being TOO sincere.
And the album, thank god, isn't overproduced - he makes beautiful use of space, and lets the music breathe.
I'm definitely seeing BK play again the next time he's in town - whoever the headliner happens to be.