ARTIST: Ben Folds Five
TITLE: Whatever And Ever Amen (Remastered)
LABEL: Sony Music
GENRE: Rock
TIME: 76:21 min
SIZE: 111,4 MB
RIP DATE: Mar-23-2005
RELEASE DATE: Mar-22-2005
WEBSITE: n/a

Track List:

01. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces       03:52
02. Fair                                       05:56
03. Brick                                      04:32
04. Song For The Dumped                        03:52
05. Selfless, Cold and Composed                06:10
06. Kate                                       03:14
07. Smoke                                      04:52
08. Cigarette                                  01:38
09. Steven's Last Night In Town                03:28
10. Battle of Who Could Care Less              03:17
11. Missing The War                            04:19
12. Evaporated                                 04:30
13. Video Killed The Radio Star                03:43
14. For All The Pretty People                  03:24
15. Mitchell Lane                              03:43
16. Theme From 'Dr. Pyser' (Studio Version)    03:14
17. Air                                        03:22
18. She Don't Use Jelly (Lounge-a-Palooza)     04:12
19. Song For The Dumped (Japanese Version)     05:03

Release Notes:

Track 18 of FNT's release cut off about two minutes
before the end of the song, hence the proper.

Music in the mid-2000s seems more diverse and
stratified. But in the general guitar-bass-drum
format of '90s alternative rock, the Ben Folds Five
piano-and-rhythm show really was an anomaly. This is
a point of pride for Folds in his notes for the
expanded, newly remastered edition of Whatever and
Ever Amen, his band's 1997 commercial breakthrough.
"We...had moved my baby grand all by ourselves for
three years into every punk rock club in America
that didn't want us there," he writes. "Singing
Broadway harmonies and playing pretty chords to
upset the indie kids." "Brick" was the unlikeliest
of hit singles, a sad piano story nevertheless
propelled by its poignant chorus and Folds' delivery
as the slacker forced by circumstance to grow up
fast. And a Todd Rundgren/Joe Jackson nod like
"Selfless, Cold and Composed" wasn't going to be
mistaken for some of the louder songs of the era.
But Whatever still had loads of alt-rock swagger,
mostly in Folds' smart, smug lyrics. In that
category, "Battle of Who Could Care Less" was a
masterpiece. "You think Rockford Files is cool/But
there are some things that you would change," he
sings over a track mixing '70s pop schlock with
grimy '90s rhythm. "So think about your
masterpiece/Watch The Rockford Files/Call to see if
Paul can score some weed." The 2005 Whatever and
Ever Amen is remastered, and features testimonials
from bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jesse
in addition to Folds' notes. It includes seven
B-sides and non-LP tracks, the highlights being a
Japanese-language version of "Song for the Dumped"
("You bitch" evidently doesn't translate), "For All
the Pretty People," and a cover of the Flaming Lips'
classic "She Don't Use Jelly," and features an
enjoyable, previously unreleased version of "Video
Killed the Radio Star." And now we meet in an
abandoned studio; we hear the playback and it seems
so long ago.
