FDF Volume 4 Issue 382 - Ben Folds Five: The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Album – The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner
Artist - Ben Folds Five
Key Players – Ben Folds – vocals, piano and keyboards. Robert Sledge – bass and backing vocals. Darren Jessee – drums and backing vocals.
Produced By – Caleb Southern
Release Date- April 27, 1999
Overview – This is the third studio album from Ben Folds Five. The band, based out of Chapel Hill North Carolina would release four studio albums and take two hiatus sessions. This was the last album for over 10 years until “The Sound of the Life of the Mind” was released.
FDF Comments (aka “the songs”) – The 40 minute 11 track album finds Folds on solo piano starting up “Narcolepsy”. He is a very accomplished player and does a few pretty runs before the band full comes in with a fuzzy bass and gong crash. There is a string section playing along with all this thundering bass and drum rumble. By the time Folds sings the first lines we are close to 1:30 in. The vocals seemingly secondary to the instruments as the bands plays with much fervor whole Folds never seems to break his steady vocal pace, until the song gets even livelier with the vocals and instrumentation. “Don’t Change Your Plans” follows. In is interesting that the first two tracks are the longest tracks and the focus is on the full band experience. No one instrument seems to be “the leader” and the group seems ready to explore on this record. “Mess” has a bouncier feel, but the band hasn’t really varied a lot from the previous two tracks. “Magic” is a little on the mellow side and I am waiting for things to get rolling by this point. The opening track had a lot of potential, but since then we’ve been sort of “just there”. Another orchestral tune. Ready to move it here…but “Hospital Song” is not going to get us there either. We finally get there (to these ears) when “Army” starts right out of the gate. This is the Ben Folds Five I find the most fun and interesting. Fun lyrics with some great stuff from three guys. A nice full sound with some great bass and drum breaks as well as some great sing alongs (as evident when the band would pair off the audience against one another in a singing battle on future tour dates). The horn section really fills this out nice. A tremendous/stand out track. “Your Redneck Past” is another fun track so we have a great duo here at the mid-point of the record. The track “Your Most Valuable Possession” is a phone message played over a smooth jazzy back beat. “Regrets” is back to the earlier portion of the album, until Folds seems like he wants to take it elsewhere, and it has a good clip to it and we get more of a percussive back beat pushing it along. Sounds more like an electric piano for “Jane” than the standard grand Folds plays. Jessee and Sledge continue to be solid cast members, on this track and for the entire album. The album concludes with the aptly titled “Lullabye”.
Artist - Ben Folds Five
Key Players – Ben Folds – vocals, piano and keyboards. Robert Sledge – bass and backing vocals. Darren Jessee – drums and backing vocals.
Produced By – Caleb Southern
Release Date- April 27, 1999
Overview – This is the third studio album from Ben Folds Five. The band, based out of Chapel Hill North Carolina would release four studio albums and take two hiatus sessions. This was the last album for over 10 years until “The Sound of the Life of the Mind” was released.
FDF Comments (aka “the songs”) – The 40 minute 11 track album finds Folds on solo piano starting up “Narcolepsy”. He is a very accomplished player and does a few pretty runs before the band full comes in with a fuzzy bass and gong crash. There is a string section playing along with all this thundering bass and drum rumble. By the time Folds sings the first lines we are close to 1:30 in. The vocals seemingly secondary to the instruments as the bands plays with much fervor whole Folds never seems to break his steady vocal pace, until the song gets even livelier with the vocals and instrumentation. “Don’t Change Your Plans” follows. In is interesting that the first two tracks are the longest tracks and the focus is on the full band experience. No one instrument seems to be “the leader” and the group seems ready to explore on this record. “Mess” has a bouncier feel, but the band hasn’t really varied a lot from the previous two tracks. “Magic” is a little on the mellow side and I am waiting for things to get rolling by this point. The opening track had a lot of potential, but since then we’ve been sort of “just there”. Another orchestral tune. Ready to move it here…but “Hospital Song” is not going to get us there either. We finally get there (to these ears) when “Army” starts right out of the gate. This is the Ben Folds Five I find the most fun and interesting. Fun lyrics with some great stuff from three guys. A nice full sound with some great bass and drum breaks as well as some great sing alongs (as evident when the band would pair off the audience against one another in a singing battle on future tour dates). The horn section really fills this out nice. A tremendous/stand out track. “Your Redneck Past” is another fun track so we have a great duo here at the mid-point of the record. The track “Your Most Valuable Possession” is a phone message played over a smooth jazzy back beat. “Regrets” is back to the earlier portion of the album, until Folds seems like he wants to take it elsewhere, and it has a good clip to it and we get more of a percussive back beat pushing it along. Sounds more like an electric piano for “Jane” than the standard grand Folds plays. Jessee and Sledge continue to be solid cast members, on this track and for the entire album. The album concludes with the aptly titled “Lullabye”.
Where are they Now? - The group has taken a few years off on two occasions. They released a live record in 2013. Sledge keeps busy teaching music and playing gigs in Chapel Hill. Jessee works a lot as a sideman. He’s played with Sharon Van Etten’s band and Hiss Golden Messenger. He also is on the latest War on Drugs LP. Folds has released a few solo records and continues to tour at his own pace. Ben appeared in the second season of the Showtime series “Billions” playing himself.
FDF Overall Take/Was it worth Dusting Off? – Even when this record came out I wasn’t floored and it didn’t do a ton for me on this recent revisit. At the time the band was in a transition. They’d done three records, toured heavily etc and this was a departure for them. Admitting I have not even heard their “latest” record which I sort of want to do now. The first two records are ones I’d suggest to new fans.
Links, find out more, follow em, buy
FDF Overall Take/Was it worth Dusting Off? – Even when this record came out I wasn’t floored and it didn’t do a ton for me on this recent revisit. At the time the band was in a transition. They’d done three records, toured heavily etc and this was a departure for them. Admitting I have not even heard their “latest” record which I sort of want to do now. The first two records are ones I’d suggest to new fans.
Links, find out more, follow em, buy
posted by March2theSea @ 7:00 AM
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