However, that song is just the tip of the iceberg. Of course, you all know “Brick,” which is the only thing Ben has ever had even remotely approximating a pop hit. Whatever & Ever Amen, Ben Folds Five (1997)īlerd: Signed to a major label, Ben Folds Five made their pop breakthrough with this near-perfect album. For my money, the definitive Ben Folds Five record. Ben’s records are always interesting for different reasons, but this is the man at his most youthful and exuberant even when he sifts through the ashes of a doomed relationship, as in “The Last Polka,” his analysis is barbed, energetic, and to the heart. Impeccable, sunny three-part harmonies rise and fall with each chorus-bridge inversion and there’s Folds, at the center of it all, a smarmy but never the lovably critical wiseass age would reveal him to be. Folds’ lyrics aren’t center stage here the melodies and songs are, bursting at the seams with rolling, fleet-fingered piano fills and effervescent singalong choruses. In fact, while the trio’s musical sophistication would eventually dull their pop smarts a bit, this record captures the Five at their most effervescent, poppy best. We here at Popblerd love us some Ben, as music nerds are wont to do, and invite you to revisit his career with Drew, Big Money, and Mike D., who are all supremely cognizant that we sound like an 80’s rap group when you say our names together like that, but hope you’ll take us seriously anyway.ĭrew: Ben Folds Five’s humble beginnings are often glazed over in favor of their later, wider-reaching material, but a revisit of their self-titled debut unearths one of the ’90s’ lost pop gems. Long gone are the days when Folds was strictly known for the glum 1997 Ben Folds Five abortion ballad “ Brick“ these days, with a creatively prosperous solo career under his belt, a high-profile judging stint on NBC’s The Sing-Off, a sprawling three-disc retrospective on shelves, and a reunion with the Five on the horizon, Folds’ heightened pop-culture profile is prolific, and well-earned.
Fiercely talented pianist, purveyor of smart-ass wit, humanist and surprisingly moving storyteller, encyclopedic and agreeably nerdy singing-contest judge Ben Folds has been accumulating his vast fanbase for two decades now, sucking listeners in with his spirited piano-pop jams, and keeping them around for his left-field stylistic excursions and smarmy observational humor.