Comments on: The Chorus of Ben Folds Five’s ‘Brick’ Is Just Absurd

By: Xander

Xander — Thu, 08 Jan 2026 18:38:48 +0000

Also, as a former English teacher who’s done a lot of reading in his time, I can’t think of any time “brick” by itself is a compliment and is used the way you suggest. “She’s a brick house” or “he’s built like a brick shithouse” are two fairly positive idioms for brick, but more often a brick is used to describe some one who’s dense, like “he’s dumb as a brick but not as useful.”

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 13:58:20 +0000

In reply to Alby.

Way to misinterpret the line. Calling someone a “brick” means they’re solid and reliable.

I’d say that was an absurd interpretation if I thought you were even bothering to make a good faith argument, which I suspect you are not.

But on the off chance that you are, and you’re just bad at interpreting lyrics, you are horribly mistaken that “She’s a brick and I’m drowning slowly” is somehow a fucking COMPLIMENT. I mean, holy shit, that’s so bad that I really have to believe you’re just making a bad faith point, because if you’re trying to honestly interpret the lyric and came up with THAT, I would be very concerned for you.

By: Alby

Alby — Fri, 26 Dec 2025 11:07:28 +0000

Way to misinterpret the line. Calling someone a “brick” means they’re solid and reliable. You interpreting it as what’s making him drown instead is on you, not him. Look inside and you just might find you’re just a judgmental asshole.

By: Chris McDonald

Chris McDonald — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 16:44:06 +0000

Maybe pull back on the moralizing. This song is his experience, not hers. Sometimes you tie yourself to a brick, even though you love the brick, and sometimes you have enough clarity to know it’s killing you, even if it’s even harder on the brick.

In reality, the only unselfish soul here is the one that ended that day.

By: Jo Marie

Jo Marie — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 20:31:32 +0000

To echo Jaclyn, the same thing brought me here. And to counter Naysayer, as someone who got pregnant by a narcissist as a teenager, feel totally comfortable judging everything about these lyrics and the person who wrote them.

By: Brian Cronin

Brian Cronin — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 08:03:20 +0000

In reply to Naysayer.

He has the “right” to do whatever he wants, I’m just noting that it is disrespectful as heck to call her a “brick” that is making him “drown slowly” in this situation. Just because you have the “right” to say something doesn’t mean you’re immune to be called out for being callous.

By: Naysayer

Naysayer — Sat, 12 Oct 2024 12:30:55 +0000

You have no right to tell this man his feelings were absurd for feeling like her depression was causing him depression. Get out of your feelings, these were his.

By: Jaclyn Hamilton

Jaclyn Hamilton — Sun, 21 Jan 2024 20:13:22 +0000

THANK you! I have always found this chorus offensive. I was just searching the internet to see if anyone else felt this way and this is the only instance I could find.

By: Rob MacGregor

Rob MacGregor — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 04:11:50 +0000

Just saw Ben perform the other night, and my wife was looking up details about him and saw he has been married five times. We listened to his new songs and realized how many of his songs have a deeply flawed narrator, as talented and powerful as they are. He talked a lot about his breakups at the show, and the truth is that he may be immensely talented as a songwriter and pianist, but he’s still dealing with some pretty toxic habits.

I used to use “Brick” when I was having my students analyze song lyrics to model poetry analysis. It was easy enough for them to get the messages, but talking about how he was selfish in all this was always part of it and seemed to make it way more real and relatable for the students because they had also made selfish decisions (being teenagers). I told Ben once that he had helped me get them into poetry with that song, but he didn’t say any of the details about grabbing the lyrics from someone else.

Oh well. “Landed” is also a beautiful, powerful song with a flawed narrator.