Ben Folds Five - The Sound of the Life of the Mind
Following a twelve-year absence, Ben Folds has got the band back together. He and his two fellow North Carolinians (drummer Darren Jessee and bassist Robert Sledge) comprise the trio that is the Ben Folds Five. The reformed group issue The Sound of the Life of the Mind, their first album since 1999, from an older and wiser place, with Folds' age-worn maturity reflected in this latest assortment of high-energy piano-rock and earnestly authoritative ballads.
Present once again on The Sound... are many of those ingredients which first made Ben Folds' name on the American college circuit (along with sporadic dalliances with the Billboard charts) back in the late 1990s. 'Do It Anyway' stands out as a jovial and idiosyncratic message of empowerment communicated through an upbeat and bawdy saloon vibe. Those crashing cymbals are again prevalent on bombastic opening track 'Erase Me', working lounge piano and jazzy improv between those heavier moments guided by Sledge's woolly bass.