Ben Folds is becoming something of a stalwart in the music scene. If he isn't producing his own work, he's helping other acts with theirs (including helping Amanda Palmer write her debut solo album, due next spring. Oh good lord yes). He's been performing under various guises since 1988, but he is best known for his solo work since 2001's "Rockin' the Suburbs", and the work he did with Ben Folds Five between 1995 and 1999.
This collection was released shortly after Ben Folds' debut solo album, and so the majority of tracks on it are from the glory days of Ben Folds Five, who were known for playing (according to Folds), "punk rock for sissies". Any music with Ben Folds name on it has a tradition of being geeky and unpretentious - it's music for the UNCOOL uncool kids, the bottom of the barrel stuff. The uncool kids with goth bags and 20 tonnes of make up ain't welcome here, no siree bob.
For once I'll start with comments about the CD as a purchase item. It's not cheap, I will admit, but you do get a DVD included with Ben Folds performances on them, so what you pay is harmonious with what you get.
And now, the CD itself. On the one hand, this CD won't score any points on the originality scale, as there is nothing new on the album except for one song (more on that later). However, when this CD says "Ben Folds Live", that is
exactly what it is - just Ben, on his own, with a piano. There are no drums or bass for any performances and what extra sounds you hear other than vocals and piano are improvised by Mr Folds himself. Track 15, "Philosophy", does say (inc. Misirlou) on the cover, but I for one can't hear anything other than Folds. This does mean that even the oldest of old favourites have had to be reworked to accommodate the lack of instrumental backup.
As far as the layout of tracks goes, again I'm caught in 2 minds over it. I would have preferred to hear one gig from start to finish, complete with mistakes and banter, rather than a selection box of different live performances. I think if you're going to get a live album, it's because you want to sample the live experience, so having the crowd noises suddenly change between tracks takes away from that. However, it does work in the sense that it's a "best of" album of sorts. This isn't a studio album so there's no thematic progression in songs, but for me that doesn't really matter.
For those unaware of Ben Folds music, just think Elton John for the underdog. I've never been an Elton John fan myself, as I find his music a bit too grandiose. This is piano pop stripped down to the bare essentials, with a sprinkling of inspired lyrics over the top. The majority of Ben Folds songs are written in the second or third person, and usually involve a fictional character or pseudonym (Eddie Walker, Fred Jones, and Alice Childress to name a few). A lot of Ben Folds music has a tongue in cheek humour about it (Rockin' the Suburbs for example, which unfortunately isn't on this album). Others, such as The Luckiest and Brick, are personal, sincere songs that could reduce Megatron to tears at a few paces.
As far as the album content goes, the songs are all consistently good. Ben Folds rarely makes mistakes, and nearly all the songs have been reworked brilliantly (One Angry Dwarf is a little bit empty sounding but the rest are fine). But there are 3 main factors that make this album a must-own.
Firstly, the crowd banter. Ben Folds is brilliantly funny, and no other act I've seen interacts with the crowd as well or as much as him. He will play pranks on the crowd, have discussions with individual people - he almost borders on being a stand-up/piano singer combo. Secondly, the song "Rock This Bitch". Ben Folds fans will know about this, but for the uninitiated, an explanation of this song. One night during a performance in Chicago, a member of the audience screamed to Ben Folds "Rock this bitch!". Ben replies "Ok", and goes on to make up a song called "Rock This Bitch". Since then, this has become a tradition at every live Ben Folds concert and every time he makes up a new song on the spot (a couple of years ago he made up a song live on stage with orchestra backing). That original rock this bitch moment is caught on this CD. If you can get hold of other versions of it, please do as they are brilliant (especially the one with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra). My final love of this CD deserves its own paragraph.
No matter how good a musician you are, if you plan to play a rock concert with just a piano at your disposal, you're going to have a hard time keeping everything exciting and entertaining. When most people today have an attention span shorter than Napoleon amputated at the knees, special things need to be done. But Ben Folds has another instrument at his disposal. Thousands in fact. What he does is use the....audience as an instrument! The original of the song "Army" features a brass section with trumpets and saxophones playing complementary melodies to each other. So he gets half the fans to sing the trumpet part, and half to sing the saxophone part. This works so well, when I went to see him in January this year, the audience did it without even being asked. On "Not the Same", he gets the audience to sing a 3 part harmony, and the effect is just amazing. When he's not utilising the audience as an instrument, he's playing palmed drum solos on the microphone, and using even the inside of the piano to make all manner of cool effects and noises.
When you consider all this, you really have to say this album is totally original, which is an achievement for a live album. The similarity between the studio versions and the live versions is the same as the similarity between Jack White and Barry White - just the name.
The DVD is a handy addition to all this, because you can see how Ben Folds works the audience, has them singing like angels, and you even see how they took the photo for the front cover.
Ok, so whether I recommend it or not is something of a no brainer really. But I really would tell anyone curious about Ben Folds to get this album first, as it gives the listener such a clear profile of who he is and what he can do.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Advantages: Quirky and original, both witty and touching, Ben Folds Disadvantages: Not to everyone's taste, I'm told the other albums weren't so good so you might not be able to build up a great BF5 collection
Oct 19th, 2007
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