SOUNDTRACK: BEN FOLDS FIVE-The Sound of the Life of the Mind (2013).
The first Ben Folds Five album in over a decade opens with a big noisy sound and then quickly shows the diversity of the band by pulling back and showing a mellow verse with Ben’s piano and occasional bass. But then the chorus comes in and Robert Sledge’s bass is once again masterful. While Ben is clearly the leader of the band, there is something about the BFF’s bass that is so notable. And this album rocks in BFF’s unique way–rollicking piano, and noisy buzzy bass.
“Michael Praytor, Five Years Later” has some great harmonies (the kind that BFF do so well). “Sky High” is the kind of social commentary ballad that Ben excels at. And the title track is a fast moving rocker that has more great harmonies.
“On Being Frank” is a Sinatra inspired song with strings. While “Draw a Crowd” continues Ben’s humorous vulgarity in a very unexpected way: “if you’re feeling small, and you can’t draw a crowd…draw dicks on a wall.” “Do It Anyway” the single, which inexplicably wasn’t huge, gets more and more fun with each listen–to scream along with “OKAY!” is very cathartic.
“Hold That Thought” is one of those mellow but speedy numbers that I love from Ben. And when then bass plays that high solo bit near the end (oh that bass), the song kicks into new levels of excellence. “Away When You were Down” is another string-filled mellow song. The final track “Thank You for Breaking My Heart” reminds me of “Boxing”, a mellow piano ballad which is, obviously, heartbreaking.
This is a great return to form. There’s some heavy rockers and some pretty ballads. It’s nice to hear the Five back together again.
[READ: October 5, 2013] 3 book reviews
This month Bissell reviewed three books.
The first book is a biography of Flavius Jospehus called A Jew Among Romans 
by Frederic Raphael (who also wrote the screen play for Eyes Wide Shut). I had never heard of Flavius Jospehus but evidently without him we would have no historical accounts of time from around the beginning of the Common Era. His writings are pretty much the only works that have survived.
And his story itself is interesting too. In 70 A.D. the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. This attack has had more impact on current life than can be explained. Judaism lost the Second temple, Jewish Christianity soon disappeared beneath the waves of Gentile Christianity, even Islam was shaped by this because a Mosque now stands where the Second Temple was. And nearly all modern forms of anti-Semitism can be traced back to this attack in some way. Flavius Jospehus chronicled this time as a Jew in a reasonably impartial way (which led many to call him a traitor). His books Jewish Antiquities and The Jewish War are the sources for almost all of our knowledge of that era, including about Pontius Pilate. (more…)
I Just Read About That... 