The Dream Team

Way To Normal hits stores in less than a week, but Ben Folds is already thinking about his next project: a full-length collaboration with author Nick Hornby. Yes, the news hit the web on Monday, but excuse me for being late; I still haven't stopped drooling at the thought of this. Hornby is my favorite author, whose seminal classics High Fidelity and About A Boy not only were self-deprecating, pop-culture-spewing literary masterworks, but also excellent film adaptations as well. Here's what Folds had to say to news.com.au:

Nick Hornby and I are talking about doing a record where he writes all the lyrics and I write the music. His lyrics are great. These are really good words.

I'm not going to let them intimidate me. I'm just going to go in and whip out the music. Some of [the lyrics] hit close to the bone about certain things, certain named people, and we've been juggling how to keep from making a record that's going to get sued.

And here's Hornby's account, courtesy of jabiba.com: 

I’m writing the lyrics for a Ben Folds album, which he’s recording in Dublin in December. I wasn’t going to mention this, on the presumption that it will never happen, but my writing partner seems confident enough to have talked about it already, and if he thinks something will come of it, then (deep breath) so do I. At the moment it feels rather as if I have several half-finished cryptic crosswords on the go: there are bits of paper lying all over the place, and sometimes I have a stab at a couplet while making the tea, or watching Arsenal beat Bolton. I suppose that’s what Dylan must do, although I have no idea who he supports.

Ben, as you may know, is quite capable of writing his own lyrics, but I think he fancied a rest, and anyway he, like me, wants to have as much fun as he can in his chosen medium while there’s still fun to be had.

There is undeniable greatness to come of this. I'm positive. Eat your heart out, William Shatner.