th<\/i><\/sup> (in 2018, that recording finally got a CD and vinyl release; those both feature liner notes by this writer, based on interviews with Folds).<\/p>\nIf one listened closely along the way, though, it was clear that Folds and his bandmates were simultaneously committed to the trio format yet bristling to move beyond it. The latter motivation led to the group\u2019s curious third (and seemingly final) album of new material, 199\u2019s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner<\/i>. From its title on down, Biography<\/i> is a strange, experimental and not entirely immediate collection of songs. But time has proven that BFF\u2019s third album may well be its finest.<\/p>\n
\u201cNarcolepsy\u201d opens the album. A hypnotic piano melody in three-quarter time, it starts off with a more classical feel than is typical of the group’s earlier material. But when Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee join in, the arrangement explodes; it\u2019s a melding of baroque and hard rock textures. Sweeping strings add grandeur to the song, with buzzing bass, slashing cymbal hits and breathtaking violin ensemble work. It\u2019s nearly a minute and a half before Folds begins singing. The song\u2019s somewhat angular melody signals that Biography<\/i> isn\u2019t going to be a readily accessible rock album. The tune\u2019s midsection chugs along like the Move, while Folds sings alternately in an oddly dispassionate tone and then a highly emotive roar. The maelstrom of instruments \u2013 heavy on the strings, and with prominent use of throbbing analog synthesizer \u2013 likely surprised listeners who fell in love with the group over songs like \u201cUnderground\u201d and \u201cThe Battle of Who Could Care Less.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t Change Your Plans\u201d is more conventional, with Folds channeling his inner Harry Nilsson: fetchingly alluring melody and literate love lyrics. The song makes full and effective use of Folds\u2019 facility with aural shade and light. Stacked vocal harmonies, a kinetic piano part and muscular bass playing are among the song\u2019s highlights. But it\u2019s the very Tijuana Brass-sounding trumpet solo \u2013 backed by more strings \u2013 by which the song leaves its most indelible mark.<\/p>\n
The melancholy \u201cMess\u201d opens with a tinny piano playing a part that sounds straight out of Al Stewart\u2019s \u201cOn the Border.\u201d The gentle yet impassioned melody hearkens back to early \u201870s singer-songwriters. Once again, the string arrangement adds a great deal of emotional content to an already stirring tune. In the third verse, nearly all the instruments (except drums and strings) drop out, making the re-entry of the full group (with more harmony vocals) even more effective. It\u2019s a triumph in most every way.<\/p>\n
Darren Jessee\u2019s \u201cMagic\u201d sounds like an elegiac Elton John deep album track. And \u2013 yet again \u2013 those strings! John Mark Painter\u2019s conducting and arrangement on Biography<\/i> raises what would have otherwise been a very good album to the level of a truly great one. It\u2019s followed by the somnambulant and hazy \u201cHospital Song,\u201d a downbeat cousin to \u201cBrick.\u201d It features a brief, jazzy and understated piano solo.<\/p>\n
The reverie of that song is broken by the album\u2019s centerpiece, \u201cArmy.\u201d The autobiographical tune has no end of clever lyrics, and the tune only gets better as it progresses. The massed horn charts are hair-raising, taking a funny yet poignant song and transforming it into a brassy tour-de-force. Jessee\u2019s snappy drumming and Sledge\u2019s beefy bass provide the most solid of foundations. And Folds\u2019 barrelhouse piano solo is played with wonderfully reckless abandon. More than anywhere else on the album \u2013 and, for that matter, throughout their entire catalog \u2013 here, Ben Folds Five sounds like the Wrecking Crew.<\/p>\n
Picking up a lyrical cue from \u201cArmy,\u201d \u201cYour Redneck Past\u201d sounds like a (very good) outtake from the first BFF album. As he often does, Folds makes pop culture references in his lyric, name-checking Billy Idol and rapper Kool Moe Dee. Sledge gets some interesting mileage out of sound effects made on the strings of his bass. Jazzy interludes coexist with \u201cyo!\u201d filled scratching sections. The various sonic elements of the song ought not to work together, yet somehow they do.<\/p>\n
A bizarre cut, \u201cYour Most Valuable Possession\u201d weds an atmospheric instrumental track \u2013 a distant cousin of Carole King\u2019s \u201cIt\u2019s Too Late\u201d \u2013 to an answering machine message left by Folds\u2019 dad. If one listens past the \u201cfound\u201d spoken-word part, there\u2019s some tasty electric piano work going on.<\/p>\n
Once again picking up a piece of \u201cArmy,\u201d \u201cRegrets\u201d begins with words and melody lifted from the very end of the former track. But then the song heads in a completely different direction, with insistent percussion that seems to draw from Sergio Mendes and Brasil \u201866. Folds plays some very jazz chords, while Sledge lays down a delightfully busy bass line. More analog synthesizers are splashed over the arrangement. Yet again, the group combines musical elements that \u2013 on the face of it \u2013 don\u2019t belong together. The end product isn\u2019t really classifiable as rock, jazz or pop \u2013 in places it\u2019s closest to \u201ceasy listening,\u201d even though it rocks \u2013 and it\u2019s wonderful.<\/p>\n
\u201cJane\u201d is more easily classified: it\u2019s jazz-pop, centered around Folds\u2019 electric piano, with firm and understated accompaniment from Jessee and Sledge. The bridge vocal is a thing of beauty.<\/p>\n
The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner<\/i> concludes with \u201cLullabye.\u201d The gentle tune has a character and lyric to match its title and placement. The song doesn\u2019t exactly sound like The Band, but it does show hints of Folds\u2019 appreciation for Richard Manuel\u2019s piano style, with a bit of Leon Russell tossed in for good measure. The string arrangement here is initially more subdued, until the final moments when it spars with Folds\u2019 piano licks.<\/p>\n
Predictably, Ben Folds Five\u2019s final release before its extended hiatus would be a critical smash, but it didn\u2019t sell as well as its Platinum-selling predecessor. Still, the album did reach #35 on the Billboard<\/i> 200, technically a better showing than Whatever and Ever Amen<\/i> (#42). The band broke up within a year of Biography<\/i>\u2019s release, with all members going on to solo work before reuniting in 2008 and 2011.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
North Carolina-based Ben Folds Five came on the scene in 1995 with their self-titled debut album. The Chapel Hill band had been together two years, honing their unusual (in a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16747,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,62,65],"tags":[286],"class_list":["post-16746","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-ben-folds-five","cat-51-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16746","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16746"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16746\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16748,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16746\/revisions\/16748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16746"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16746"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16746"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/bff_biography.jpg\")
North Carolina-based Ben Folds Five came on the scene in 1995 with their self-titled debut album. The Chapel Hill band had been together two years, honing their unusual (in a rock context, anyway) approach: a piano, bass and drum trio with no guitars. The sonic space customarily occupied by lead guitar was filled with Robert Sledge\u2019s fuzztone-effected bass guitar; Folds provided the rhythm and melody with his accomplished, inventive and expressive piano work. The band\u2019s snarky outlook extended beyond its name: \u201cpunk rock for sissies\u201d is how Folds playfully described his music.<\/p>\n