Artist: Ben Folds Five
Album: Whatever and Ever Amen
Released by Sony Music Entertainment in 1997
When I first sat down to type out this particular review, I had total writer's block. I was quite surprised that I had nothing to say about this, one of the gems in my collection. What could explain this lack of inspiration? A day or two later, I realized what had happened.
When listening to this album, it didn't feel like the experiment at all. I've had this one for so long, and it's one that is so familiar to me, that it was not a strain to listen to at all. I loved every song on the album. Sometimes I sung along, and other times it just became the soundtrack to my thoughts. There's not much I don't enjoy about this album, but I can't just leave it at that, can I.
In case you're not familiar with the band, Ben Folds Five is a group that was fronted by pianist Ben Folds. This album is the second of three studio albums the band released. Ben Folds then went on to do a number of solo albums, just as Ben Folds. It seems that some people who are unfamiliar with this history assume it is just one group or person for all his albums. This is most certainly untrue.
Though Folds writes all the songs on this album, and most of them exclusively, the other two members of the band (bassist Darren Jesse and drummer Robert Sledge) lend a major influence to the sound of the trio. Sledge has a unique jazz/rock style of drumming, and Jesse uses a particular "fuzz-tone" on his bass which gives Ben Folds Five one of it's signature sounds.
This album has a wonderful blend of up-beat rocking tunes and mellow, pensive, slow ones. I love the opener, "One Angry Dwarf and 2000 Solemn Faces"; it's a fabulous way to kick off an album. It took me a while to get into them, but the last two tracks, "Missing the War" and "Evaporated", are beautiful ballad-type tunes. Folds really is a wonderful composer.
The big hit from this album, and possibly one of the biggest of his career, is "Brick". This simple but beautiful song is Folds' reflection on his own personal experience of having to abort a child with his girlfriend in high school. Although the plot isn't overly cryptic, the lyrics never explicitly say what it's about. I think this song caught people's attention not only musically but also emotionally.
There's an element of "raw-ness" that I love about this album. It was recorded in Folds' apartment, and he often leaves in little comments from various individuals at the end of a track. My favourite "blooper" is right near the climax at the end of "Steven's Last Night in Town". There's a big crescendo, and then a complete silence before starting up again. If you listen closely, you can hear some one's cell phone go off right in the middle of the break. For whatever reason, they left it in, and it always makes me laugh.
The only thing I really don't care for about this album (and all of Ben's music, for that matter) is his tendency to be a bit of a potty-mouth. It never bothered me when I was younger, but as I've grown up and tried to cut cursing out of my vocabulary almost entirely, especially since having children, I find myself wishing that my favourite artists would cut it out too. Ben likes to throw the "bombs" around quite frivolously at times, and that bugs me. It's something I'm willing to overlook somewhat in this case, because I love the music, but it just means that I won't put it on when the kids are around, which is a shame because I love letting them listen to all types of music.
I have a lot of great memories associated to this album. It's one that most of my peers are familiar with, so it's a great one to put on with old friends. If you've never heard it, I highly recommend you sample it in whatever way you can. It's the type of music that can bring people in from across the barrier of genres. Check out "Kate" if you want another good track to sample.
Well, the moment of truth comes again. This album is truly worthy of a score of:
8
on THE MIKE JONES SCALE OF DISC AWESOMENESS.
Join me next time as the experiment continues with another one from Mr. Folds in Disc #19: Ben Folds (Rockin' The Suburbs).
I am surprised you don't own any of the other Ben Folds Five studio albums. But again, a very fitting review. Keep it going, Mr. Jones!
ReplyDeleteYou're right. I should own "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner"; I've wanted it for a while. Doing this experiment has made me want to go to Deja Vu Discs and pick up a lot of albums already. We'll see what the budget will allow.
ReplyDeleteI saw Ben Folds open for Counting Crows back in early '97. I had heard of them but didn't really know anything about them. I loved them - they were 10x better than the Crows that night - and was able to turn a lot of people on to them before they hit it big time, which made me look like some kind of mysterious musical genius in the eyes of many of my friends. Which I am certainly not.
ReplyDeleteI think it's funny that the first time you have really commented on lyrics is on a song that I find incredibly depressing. WTF? (Just kidding. That was me referencing the Mike anti-swear movement. I'm on board honey.)
ReplyDeleteLove this Album. When I was doing a teaching Prac in Northwest Victoria, the music teacher and I re-wrote this song and played it to the school. The Chorus was something about missing it in Murrayville...
ReplyDeleteOne thing I love about Ben Folds is his simplicity of arrangements at times, yet he contradicts that so much in songs like Kate. (Not that his arrangement is overly complex with Kate, just messy.)
And yes.. Huge potty mouth.