Highlights include the poignant "That’s Me Trying," penned by Ben Folds with High Fidelity author Nick Hornby, a brilliant version of the Pulp Britpop classic "Common People," featuring vocals by Joe Jackson and closing track, "Real," a duet with country star Brad Paisley, written exclusively for this project.
After his rendition of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" on the infamousGolden Throatsalbum (though it first appeared on theTransformed ManLP), one could argue that the world needed a new William Shatner album about as much as it needed a big-screen remake ofTJ Hooker. But Shatner's back all the same with an intriguing, introspective collection of mostly spoken-word tracks that are all the more compelling when it becomes clear thatHas Beenis, in fact, no joke. Ben Folds played on and produced the record, creating rich, melodic, and varied pop musical backgrounds to Shatner's world-weary, boozy-suave yet thoroughly impassioned delivery. Joe Jackson, Aimee Mann, Henry Rollins, Brad Paisley, and Adrian Belew also stop by to lend their divergent talents. Highlights include the Rollins/Shatner rant "I Can't Get Behind That" and the Folds/Mann/Shatner collaboration "That's Me Trying", which tells the painful story of an attempted family reconciliation. Shatner mixes a healthy amount of self-awareness with a just a dollop of self-mockery and then combines it all with plenty of raw vulnerability to create an effect that is surprisingly touching, highly entertaining, and unlike any music you've ever heard.--John Moe

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William Shatner was recently caught on tape by paparazzi responding to reports that some people hadn’t yet heard his new album. See him read Amazon.com customer reviews ofHas Beenas he makes his case: high bandwidth, low bandwidth.