Enter the strange world of Piano jazz punk (Whatever And Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five)

Member Name: yhwman

Product:	Whatever And Ever Amen - Ben Folds Five
Date:	04/05/01 (55 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Some really great songs

Disadvantages: A few les inspired moments

Sadly no longer with us, Ben Folds Five released three albums between 1995 and 2000 when they inexplicably split. Mixing fuzzed up bass guitar and bright piano BF5 do have a pretty unique sound.

This album, their second, was released in 1997 and is my opinion their best. While it does only just beat the first eponymous release, it urinates from a great height on their final and somewhat disappointing album, The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.


* One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces *

How could a song with a name like that be anything other than fantastic? Bashed to hell pianos and walking fuzz bass back the story of ‘nerd done good’. Beginning the tale in school where the hero’s lunch money is being stolen and girls would rather die than kiss him the song goes all the way through to the end where he’s a big important man – always on the TV and newspapers. And boy doesn’t he like having got one over on his old schoolmates! Quality and amusing lyrics and great music make for one of the best songs BF5 ever did


* Fair *

Harmonies that verge on the scat mix with incredibly distorted bass harmonics and gentle vocals for a pretty good song. It’s by no means bad but the highlights of the album do tend to outshine it by quite a degree.


* Brick *

A slow sonorous song where bass player Robert Sledge puts down the electric bass in favour of a double bass. The piano and the drums merge to form a sad backing to lyrics about a girl having an abortion over Christmas. Cheerful stuff but it will probable remain one of BF5’s best known songs, as it made quite an impression on the UK charts, certainly more than their songs (Army excepted) usually do.


* Song For the Dumped *

Classic revenge song this one. You spent lots of time and money on a girl only for her to start spouting lots of new age rubbish like “I need space
221;. In other words, she’s leaving you. And worst of all she still has one of your T-Shirts! Bouncy and cheerful with subtle anger undertones make this the perfect song to make you smile should you ever find yourself in the above position.


* Selfless, Cold and Composed *

A nice little ballad with some strings thrown in for good measure. Some good piano playing and heartfelt lyrics make this one of BF5’s better ballads.


* Kate *

An upbeat song about a girl so perfect, little fluffy squirrels follow her around. All through the song there are lots of clever little lyrical moments – my favourite being “She never gets wet, she smiles and it’s a rainbow”. Full of jazzy piano and fuzzed up bass it’s a good’en!


* Smoke *

Clever waltz drums (3/4 time and I don’t hate it, good job lads!) and an accordion give this ballad a slightly strange feel. Great lyrics about moving on complete the picture.


* Cigarette *

A serious case of one ballad to far with this track. Slightly dodgy singing and a tune that never seems to go anywhere make this easily the worst track on the album.


* Stevens Last Night in Town *

Bonkers twenties style oboe, beach boy style “nah nah nah’s” and more quality lyrics make up for the downturn in quality that is Cigarette. Top lyrical moment being “He lost points with the ladies for saying, he couldn’t love a woman with cellulite”. Guaranteed to get you smiling and singing along.


* Battle of who could Care Less *

An absolutely superb song and the one that introduced me to BF5. Indeed, I bought this album purely on the basis of having heard this song once! Everything about the song is great, the ‘doo doo’ backing vocals, pumping bass, bouncing piano, the lyrics and appropriate drumming. Any fan of music should like this son
g.


* Missing the War *

I have the start of this song engraved into my mind, as if I played grand theft auto with this CD in I got this everytime I got out of a car. That’s quite bad really as the start of the song is fairly weak compared to the main bulk of the song. When it finally does get going with several layers of backing vocals, drums and bass it’s really good, towards the end of the song it verges on being anthemic.


* Evaporated *

Neither cheerful nor sad, this resigned ‘life is what it is’ style song makes for a good end to the album. Strings and the piano both provide nice little melodies through out the song go very well with the lyrics.


Overall, as I said at the beginning, this is BF5’s best album. The average quality of the first album is probably higher but the standout moments on this album are better then the equivalent moments on the first album. It’s hard to say whether or not you will like this album, I can’t just say if you like X or if you like Y then you will like this. Just download a couple of songs and see what you think.




* Random Facts *

Since Ben Folds Five split, singer/pianist Ben Folds has released a solo album entitled Fear Of Pop. It’s not remotely BF5’s ish but I really like it.

Chino from the Deftones really likes this band!

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