BEN FOLDS FIVE: THE SOUND OF THE LIFE OF THE MIND (2012)
1) Erase Me; 2) Michael
Praytor, Five Years Later; 3) Sky High; 4) The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind;
5) On Being Frank; 6) Draw A Crowd; 7) Do It Anyway; 8) Hold That Thought; 9)
Away When You Were Here; 10) Thank You For Breaking My Heart.
Another awful, awful disappointment. You'd
think that getting back together with «The Five» would be just the right shot
in the arm for Ben after his last album showed him moving ever closer in the
direction of limp and lifeless balladry, stuck in the middle between mainstream
adult contemporary and equally boring «alternative» indie snoozefest stuff. Surely,
one of the loudest, whackiest, and most creative rhythm sections of the past
two decades in pop music should have put the man back on the right track?
Well, they do — at least on the right lead-in
track: ʽErase Meʼ opens with a thunderblast, as Sledge's volcanic bassline immediately
latches on to Ben's opening power chord and leads into one of the heaviest
numbers in Ben Folds 21st century history. Technically, it is still a ballad,
but the "erase me, so you don't have to face me" chorus almost glows
with self-righteous anger, and nobody could have helped Ben in this more than
his old drums 'n' bass pals. It does seem a little suspicious that the new Ben
Folds Five album opens up with something «deeply psychological» rather than «head-spinningly
playful», but the heaviness and energy more than make up for the lack of humor.
So maybe, you think, Ben Folds has «matured» to the point of leaving fun stuff
behind — is that really so bad when his old friends are back to keep him
company, and use their gargantuan sound to convey the inner battles of the
soul, rather than external frustration?
The problem is, the gargantuan sound is all but
gone right after the first track is over. Once it's done, the remainder of the
album, with maybe one or two exceptions at best, is given over to the same
flaccid piano ballads or lightweight piano pop rockers that populated Lonely Avenue — and neither Sledge nor
Jessee are able, or willing to, tighten the bolts on them. The energy level
drops down, the hooks are feeble, and even after four extra listens, I have not
the slightest remembrance of how the other songs go. In fact, the only thing
I remember is that ʽOn Being Frankʼ is built right on the chords of ʽThe Long
And Winding Roadʼ, but wastes them in the context of a nominally pretty, but
essentially insubstantial song.
What irritates me most of all is that it does
not even look like he's trying. With
his level of experience, it seems as if each of these songs should have taken
about five minutes to write (lyrics excluded), and then he was just secretly
hoping that the other guys would spice it up for him, but they did not. Whenever
Ben does pick up the tempo, the others seem to become interested: on ʽDo It
Anywayʼ Sledge eventually gets into it so much he even delivers one of his
trademark «bass lead» solos, just like in the good old days. But elsewhere,
they are mostly sidemen, and could just as well have traded seats with Ben's
previous rhythm sections on his solo albums.
As they finally drag the record to its
conclusion, the crawling, weepy, yawn-inducingly sentimental ʽThank You For
Breaking My Heartʼ, the process of listening becomes unbearable. Anything for a mood change, an unusual
production idea, a treated Mellotron solo, a reggae variation on ʽRock This
Bitchʼ, a fart noise — anything but this
never-ending and ever-worsening series of «introspective» ballads that do
nothing except rehash the same old «Ben Folds and his women» topic. At this
point in his life, Ben Folds simply has nothing left to say, and it is not at
all clear to me why he had to involve his friends from the era of when he did have something to say in this
artistic self-humiliation. Thumbs down for one of the most pointless
reunions in recent rock history — for what it's worth, they should have just
put out ʽErase Meʼ and maybe ʽDo It Anywayʼ on a single, and leave the rest in
the dustbin for future generations to explore.
Check "The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind" (CD) on Amazon
Check "The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind" (MP3) on Amazon
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