Ben Folds Five: Whatever And Ever Amen Vinyl LP

Why you'll love it

This reissue comes with a printed inner sleeve carrying the lyrics and credits, pressed in the EU. "Brick" carried the Chapel Hill trio onto mainstream radio, and it remains the band's biggest hit.

This edition

Printed inner sleeve
Lyrics included
Pressed in the EU
Stereo mix

About the album

Most rock bands of 1997 were busy turning the guitars up. Ben Folds Five, a piano, a bass and a drum kit from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, went the other way, with Folds calling their sound punk rock for sissies. For their second album they skipped the big studio altogether: Folds and Caleb Southern produced and recorded it at home in Chapel Hill in September and October 1996.

That homemade feel suits the songs. "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" opens with pounding piano and Robert Sledge's fuzzed-up bass, "Kate" and "Battle of Who Could Care Less" bounce with big backing harmonies, and "Selfless, Cold and Composed" and "Evaporated" show the softer, jazzier side that would come forward on their next record. "Brick," written with drummer Darren Jessee, is the quiet one that ended up everywhere.

Folds later built a busy solo career, from Rockin' the Suburbs to producing William Shatner's Has Been. The band, of course, were never five; Folds simply thought it sounded better than Ben Folds Three, and we've never been brave enough to correct him.

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