{"id":19390,"date":"2020-08-17T05:30:36","date_gmt":"2020-08-17T09:30:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=19390"},"modified":"2020-08-17T08:39:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T12:39:54","slug":"ben-folds-fives-debut-at-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2020\/08\/17\/ben-folds-fives-debut-at-25\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Folds Five’s Debut at 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In 1997, Ben Folds Five\u2019s second album, Whatever and Ever Amen<\/i> took the charts by storm. By ’90s measures as unlikely an act as could be imagined, the North Carolina-based group succeeded with a piano-led (and guitar-free) approach at the height of the grunge era. The band\u2019s second full-length was buoyed on the strength of its single, \u201cBattle of Who Could Care Less\u201d (#22 on the U.S. Modern Rock chart) and the viscerally emotional album cut \u201cBrick.\u201d That album would represent the commercial high water mark for the group, though subsequent releases would earn critical plaudits as well. And while singer, songwriter and composer Folds would go on to a solo career, the band \u2013 a trio<\/em>, as it happens \u2013 would reunite for an album in 2012.<\/p>\n

But a year and a half before releasing their breakthrough LP, Ben Folds Five issued their self-titled debut album. It didn\u2019t make a huge commercial splash at the time, though on the success of Whatever<\/i> it eventually went Gold. And many of the qualities that made the second album a success were already in place right from the start.<\/p>\n

Ben Folds Five resolutely staked out its own unique position on the musical landscape. Waggishly choosing a misleading name was just part of the strategy of throwing listeners a bit off balance. Eschewing guitars, BFF instead employed Folds\u2019 supreme skills on piano as one of its primary melodic tools. The other was Robert Sledge\u2019s bass guitar; in addition to playing the traditional rhythm section role (with drummer Darren Jessee), Sledge essentially played \u201clead bass,\u201d delivering melodic lines high on the neck of his instrument, often run through a fuzz effects box. And all three musicians sang, giving the group the ability to craft complex vocal harmonies.<\/p>\n

But the core of Ben Folds Five\u2019s music would be its leader\u2019s songwriting. And even when Whatever and Ever Amen<\/i> became a runaway success, with the band touring far and wide, many of the songs on the debut album would become and remain fan favorites. Folds\u2019 compositional style would draw as much from the singer-songwriter tradition (Carole King and Harry Nilsson, for example) as from arena rock of the \u201870s (specifically Elton John) as well as various forms of jazz. All of those textures rolled together with a rock sensibility created what Folds liked to jokingly call \u201cpunk rock for sissies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ben Folds\u2019 spirited singing and energetic piano work is at the heart of the album\u2019s opening track, \u201cJackson Cannery.\u201d The song rocks hard, even without guitars. Sledge\u2019s melodic basswork adds countermelody to Folds\u2019 kinetic pounding of the keys. There\u2019s a truly organic, live-in-the-studio feel to the song, a vibe characterized by the whole album.<\/p>\n

Even better is \u201cPhilosophy,\u201d with a grand introduction that rivals Elton\u2019s \u201cFuneral for a Friend\u201d in intensity. But the song itself is a melancholy, deeply textured tune with plenty of nuance and bitter humor. And again, the vocal harmonies elevate the song even farther. As consistently fine as the record is, \u201cPhilosophy\u201d is a strong contender for its best track.<\/p>\n

\u201cJulianne\u201d is a bratty rocker in the style of Green Day \u2026 if Green Day had a piano and no guitars. The trio is on fire as Folds tickles the ivories while his rhythm section charges forth in splashy, delightfully messy fashion. \u201cWhere\u2019s Summer B.?\u201d is Folds at his melodic best, with a sound that suggests a hard-rocking Burt Bacharach.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlice Childress\u201d demonstrates that Ben Folds Five<\/i> isn\u2019t only about intensity; the subtle and heart-rending arrangement displays the kind of sophistication the group would explore on subsequent releases, most notably 1999\u2019s masterful The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner<\/i><\/a>.<\/p>\n

But perhaps the song that distills all of Ben Folds Five\u2019s assets into the space of just over four minutes is \u201cUnderground.\u201d A playful poke at the musical hipster scene, \u201cUnderground\u201d is as mock-dramatic as the music from The Rocky Horror Show<\/i>. Combining wistful nostalgia, on-the-nose mocking of scenesters and an infectious melody, the song has few parallels in pop music. It rocks hard, swings like \u201870s glam and sports an ambitious arrangement every bit the equal of (the far more densely layered) music of Jellyfish. Add to that an irresistible singalong chorus and the result is a classic. In a delightfully perverse gambit, the song ends with a jazzy bit.<\/p>\n

Had Ben Folds Five<\/em> ended there and then, it would have been a superb EP. But the second half of the album is strong as well. The nervy \u201cSports & Wine\u201d showcases the trio\u2019s tight playing and \u2013 yet again \u2013 the supreme musicianship of all three players. \u201cUncle Walter\u201d is nearly power pop, with beefy bass propelling the song\u2019s breakneck pace. Some intricately voiced piano chording adds a layer of complexity to what\u2019s essentially a straight-ahead tune.<\/p>\n

\u201cBest Imitation of Myself\u201d is songwriter Folds in heart-on-the-sleeve mode. The hard-hitting playing is contrasted by soaring, heartfelt vocal harmonies. For \u201cVideo,\u201d Jessee and Sledge dial back their intensity a bit, allowing more space for Folds\u2019s piano and voice. But even still, the tune rocks, with dramatic crescendos and a lovely solo.<\/p>\n

Despite its title, \u201cThe Last Polka\u201d isn\u2019t really a dance tune of any kind. There is a definite Eastern European flavor to the arrangement, but more than anything else it\u2019s a showcase for the players\u2019 skill that just happens to have lyrics which tell a story. The album closes on a sophisticated note with \u201cBoxing,\u201d a melody that recalls Randy Newman. Folds\u2019 singing conveys deep heartbreak and regret in melodramatic fashion. It\u2019s more than three minutes in before the arrangement folds in additional instrumentation: violin, viola, cello. Those elements end the record and \u2013 in retrospect \u2013 can be seen as pointing the way toward the future of Ben Folds Five. But still no guitars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In 1997, Ben Folds Five\u2019s second album, Whatever and Ever Amen took the charts by storm. By ’90s measures as unlikely an act as could be imagined, the North Carolina-based […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19391,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,62,65],"tags":[4214,286],"class_list":["post-19390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-rawk","category-review","tag-ben-folds","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\/19390","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=19390"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19390\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19438,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19390\/revisions\/19438"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19390"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19390"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19390"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}