Tuesday, January 9, 2007

Ben Folds Five/Ben Folds

So forget the categories thing, i'm just going to give it a 1 to 10 rating.

Everyone who listens to Ben Folds knows that his music can be placed in two different categories, Ben Folds Five, and the solo stuff. Personally I like both, but I find that Ben Folds Five goes much deeper as far as their lyrics, and are overall, much more varried in their musicality. The two most popular Ben Fold's Five albums are 'Whatever & Ever Amen', and 'The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.' 'Biography..' features a wider range of instruments, such as the violin and the cello, while 'Whatever..' sticks to the more classic piano riffs. 'Whatever & Ever Amen' can be classified as Ben Folds Five's greatest success. The album touches both ends of the spectrum, with the upbeat and jazzy 'Steve's Last Night in Town', to the deep and reflective 'Selfless, Cold, and Composed'. You hear the song 'Brick', about a teenage boy bringing his girlfriend to get an abortion, and then it's followed by 'Song For The Dumped'. "Wish I hadn't bought you dinner..Right before you dumped me on your front porch...Give me my money back..Give me my money back, you b____"
I think the multitude of different emotions covered in this album is what makes it one of my favorites. I don't think that people want to listen to an album where song after song pretty much expresses the same thing.

The solo music that Ben Folds has released is somewhat different than the recordings done with Ben Folds Five. In my opinion, it's a bit more repetative overall. The album 'Rockin' The Suburbs' imparticularly stands out to me. It contains songs such as 'Annie Waits', 'Losing Lisa', and 'Carrying Cathy'. The balad of the album, 'The Luckiest', is one of the most popular songs he's ever written. On the other end, the song 'Rockin' the Suburbs' is hilarious. It goes through the hardships of growing up in middle class suburbia. "I'm pissed off but I'm too polite when people break in the McDonald's line...Mom and Dad you made me so uptight, I'm gonna cuss on the mic tonight" The musicality on these songs can't be compared to that of Ben Folds Five. The piano parts, while still very intricate and impressive, lack something that is found in the songs of Ben Folds Five.

Ben Fold Five recieves a 9
Ben Folds recieves a 7.5

Also, Ben Folds Five has a very good cover of a certain Snoop Dog song, whose title I probably can't post on here. Check it out.

1 comment:

erin said...

i personally lovee ben folds... i havent heard much of ben folds five so i am going to have to get on that. i think ben folds gets a 10 by the way! :D