BEN FOLDS FIVE: BEN FOLDS FIVE (1995)
1) Jackson Cannery; 2)
Philosophy; 3) Julianne; 4) Where's Summer B.; 5) Alice Childress; 6)
Underground; 7) Sports & Wine; 8) Uncle Walter; 9) Best Imitation Of
Myself; 10) Video; 11) The Last Polka; 12) Boxing.
It is usually said about Ben Folds that, during
the young innocent days of his North Carolina childhood, he was teaching
himself the piano by learning Elton John and Billy Joel songs. Fast forward
approximately twenty years into the future, and although the man himself bears
a rather uncanny facial resemblance to a young Elton John, his musical style
certainly veers closer to Billy Joel: think either of a subconscious patriotic
tug, or maybe of Ben being a light, playful kind of guy, not particularly
hungry for Elton's sweeping old school ambitions.
However, «closer» by no means signifies
«identical». The first album by Ben Folds Five was released in 1995, the
middle of the «smart/ass/ decade» where emulating the relative intellectual
simplicity of Billy Joel, no matter how much you liked him in the first place,
would neither be a promising commercial move, nor a respectable artistic
decision. Besides, Ben's interests and preferences did extend to genres other
than early 1970s piano pop — these songs show an equally strong influence of
Sixties' pop, garage rock, and psychedelia, and it is no total coincidence that
the album came out in the same year as the debut of The Apples In Stereo: both
reflect the same demand for intelligent retro-pop with a modernistic update
that seemed to emerge at the time as a healthy underground antidote to... well,
whatever it was that irked and annoyed you about music in the early Nineties, I
guess, be it Michael Jackson, Nirvana, or Mariah Carey.
«Ben Folds Five» is actually a trio (with
Darren Jessee on drums and Robert Sledge on bass), although if you throw in
the guest musicians (Ted Ehrhard on violin, Chris Eubank on cello), you can
technically squeeze out a «five» all right, but the real reason is, Ben simply
thought that «Folds Five» sounded more harmoniously than «Folds Three».
Besides, when you fold, you do usually fold five, unless you're playing three
card poker, but that's beyond the point. And the point is, there is no guitar
whatsoever on the album — just piano, bass, and drums, with some extra strings
every now and then. This does not mean, however, that Ben Folds Five know not
how to rock out — Sledge's distorted roaring bass, Jessee's maniacal pummeling,
and Ben's aggressive punching of the keys occasionally come together in garagey
barrages of rock noise that were quite unthinkable in the days of early Elton
John, when he, too, still favored the piano/bass/drums «power trio» format,
with optional orchestration.
Ben's individual talents, pulled out one by one
and stretched out for all to see, are hardly jaw-dropping. As a piano player,
he seems to be about as good as a self-taught hard-worker gets; as a singer,
he's competent in mid-range but frequently gets off-key when climbing higher,
with an irritating indie knack of despising perfectionism; as a composer, he knows
how to craft hooks but just as frequently leaves them frustratingly
undercooked; as a lyricist, he is astute and always finds a way to get his
ideas through, but not always a properly impressive literary way with words to
express these ideas. But throw in a little bit of everything, and it is not
difficult to understand how the man quickly got himself a reliable fanbase.
Actually, my biggest beef with the record is
none of that, but rather the fact that the piano / bass / drums formula gets routine
and predictable rather quickly. The piano melodies, regardless of whether they
come from a music hall, torch ballad, or garage-rock mindset, do not have too
great a range, and, anyway, the piano is really only there for Ben to provide a
general backing for the voice — he does not solo all that much, and quite a few
of the songs are introduced with accapella singing, which immediately takes
your attention off the instruments, or simply bury the piano under a vicious
rhythm section onslaught altogether. In the end, while this is formally «piano pop», I did not get
the impression of a love connection between Ben and his instrument — not
something you could accuse either Elton or Billy of, regardless of your
feelings for them.
But despite this, it is hard to dislike the
album once you've gotten the hang of it. First, when the trio is on, they're
on: the fast-flowing pop hooks of such songs as ʽJulianneʼ, ʽSports &
Wineʼ, ʽUndergroundʼ are unbeatable, not to mention the intelligence. ʽUndergroundʼ
has always been singled out in particular, with its derision of subcultures and
stereotypes — "who's got the looks? who's got the brains? who's got
everything? I've got this pain in my heart, that's all" is one of the
simplest and truest send-ups of the «indie mentality» in the history of indie
rock, adequately set to a completely «traditionalist», un-gimmicky melody. But
a sucker for a sweet catchy chorus like me will probably put ʽJulianneʼ with
its funny, catchy falsetto over its upbeat, fast tempo ahead of socially
relevant thematics.
One thing Ben will try to seduce you with is
his honesty-simplicity value complex. He bares it all already on the second
track, called ʽPhilosophyʼ: "I see that there is evil / And I know that
there is good / And the inbetweens I never understood / Won't you look at me,
I'm crazy / But I get the job done". (Then, as if to prove that he does
get the job done, he throws in a textbook Gershwin quotation in the outro). Although
this is just an extract ripped from a denser, more ambiguous and allegorical
context, this feeling of being relatively uncluttered by excessive, trumped-up
complexity of feel and thought permeates the album — the songs are all either
about personal relations with girls, friends, and the rest of the world, or
little character portraits well in the old Brit-pop vein (ʽUncle Walterʼ;
ʽBoxingʼ, a ballad written from the perspective of an aging Muhammad Ali that
forms a surprisingly touching conclusion to the record). They are all coherent,
ensuring that the album is more than just a sum of its parts, and make it
easier to overlook particular problems with «undercooking» of the melodies or
occasional bum notes that Ben refuses to correct.
Anyway, the album does strive for a philosophy, and every time a new artist like that
arrives, the correct question to ask is, «is this guy for real? should he be
taken seriously?». And, well, it is difficult for me to imagine Ben Folds
tugging at anybody's heart strings with the skill of a Ray Davies, or blowing
anybody's mind with the weapon arsenal of a Todd Rundgren, but at least he is
definitely for real, and making the best, and most graciously coordinated, use
of all his talents that an «average smart Joe from North Carolina» could ever
make. Quite a natural-coming thumbs up here — and, on a technical trivia note,
this is probably the best ever pop debut
album to be released at the not-so-tender age of twenty-nine. In a different
age, the artist would only have room for one more before he'd be written off as
irrelevant — that's one social disease that the Nineties, and the aging of rock
music in general, have cured us from.
Check "Ben Folds Five" (CD) on Amazon
Check "Ben Folds Five" (MP3) on Amazon
This made my day:
ReplyDelete"You are such a retard.
No, you don't have to like every PG album or song. I don't even care if your a fan at all but for god's sake:
learn objectivity
see birdy
find out what 'Family Snapshot' is REALLY about
stop comparing PG to siseneGGenesis
if you want to be a critic of music invest in an at least an iota of music history and theory
We are all praying for your soul here at the Church of Peter Gabriel. It is people like you, with your hateful ignorance, that keep delaying the release of UP.
SpankAssMasterFreakCunnilingusBushFan
[Special author note: I don't usually post flames like these, but I had to make an exception in this case. No one will believe me twenty years on...]"
As much as Elton John or Billy Joel, I would actually compare BF to Joe Jackson. Especially the longer BF went on-- BF has a bit of a snarkiness and ironic sense of humor that is rooted in punkish ways more so than Elton John and Billy Joel. And also, Ben Folds later got somewhat pretentious with his songwriting just like Joe Jackson too. And JJ has released several albums and toured several times without guitar, putting bass, piano and drums at the forefront. His last album of original material from 2008 called 'Rain' had that arrangement.
ReplyDeleteI love JJ so Ben Folds seems a natural person for me to like as well, but he just comes of as such a sap and kinda whiny. Joe Jackson has fallen victim to that too, but the punk edge he had especially early on tempered enough for me I guess, plus I just think he's a way better songwriter on average. I hope you review JJ when you get around to that letter, would love to hear your take!
Lastly, there have been a surprising amount of pop debuts around the age of 30 if you dig enough, I think. One that springs to mind is The Cars. They were around that age when the self titled debut came out, not to mention that album trounces anything BF has done, no?