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For anyone who has felt the pain of love's labor lost, or
been completely rattled by an overburden of self pity and
not able to understand what went wrong with your relationship,
Ben Folds Five has written Whatever and Ever Amen for you.
The album takes the passionate level of human emotions involved
in a break-up and domesticates them with modernized piano
minuettes and jazzy orchestral arrangements that make this
sticky subject matter much less uncomfortable.
The title of this collection of songs, itself, implies a frustrated,
indifferent feeling towards misguided romance, but it is the
lyrics that allow fellow heartachers to relate. Folds, who
had a hand in writing, producing and singing on all twelve
tracks is able to say exactly what we all want to say in that
delicate situation when anger and disbelief seem to render
us mute. The song, "Fair", contemplates the old
adage about love and war (Every couple of nights or so/ You
know you pop into my dreams/ I just can't get rid of you/
Like you got rid of me).
A prologue from the artists, printed on the album jacket,
notes: "The lyrics or text [for Whatever and Ever Amen]
were created to detract from the repetition inherent in modern
instrumental pop music." The only problem with this statement
is that these songs are not repetitious. The solemn sound
woven into "Fair", "Brick" and "Evaporated"
all give you that same tinge of insecurity common whether
giving or receiving the boot from your sugar, but "Song
for the Dumped" and "Stevens Last Night in Town"
deal in that same awkwardness while still managing to swing
out. Fold's lyrics aren't restricted to only gloom and doom,
either. The mid-album standout, "Kate", rejoices
in that moment of bliss when love is so powerful, that the
ride seems infinite (When words fail she speaks/ Her mix tapes
a masterpiece/ Walks through the garden/ So the roses can
see).
Ben Folds Five has proven they know how to jump and jive,
however, the down-to-earth music of Folds and bandmates, Darren
Jessee and Robert Sledge, is a bit too melancholy to be played
in zoot suits. They might be more aptly described as a less-esoteric
Toad the Wet Sprocket that you can dance to . . . sometimes.
One of the best things to come out of Chapel Hill, NC, before
and since the Duke Blue Devils, the trio's rawness is masked
by their melodic cohesion of rhythm guitar and drums with
a rolling piano. Recorded at a home studio, spontaneity is
present throughout the wistful refrains and various included
outtakes (don't skip the hidden track). You can even hear
the phone ringing during "Stevens Last Night in Town".
Writing this review, with the disc spinning in the player,
had me recalling my own turbulence in the stratosphere of
love, when Whatever and Ever Amen was my floatation device.
-Gabe Proctor
Track Listing:
1. Angry Dwarf and Two Hundred Solemn Faces
2. Fair
3. Brick
4. Song for the Dumped
5. Selfless Cold and Composed
6. Kate Army
7. Smoke
8. Cigarette
9. Stevens Last Night in Town
10. Battle of Who Could Care Less
11. Missing the War
12. Evaporated
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