Ben Folds Five - The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (1999)

 

So Ben Fold Five is a name I have heard quite a few times, and in all honestly I thought they were a soft rock band. This album is more piano driven with jazz elements. In actual facts it reminds me of Rufus Wainwright's Want albums a little. Seems it has been finely crafted song by song to create a kind of musical tapestry, as the title suggests, a sort of story. Perhaps it is an album about searching for identity. I pick up elements of The Beach Boys too on the third song 'Mess'. These are merely first impressions. The lyrics are spoken from the 1st person point of view and sounds like a diary baring all details.

The piano parts are expertly played and the drums and bass used sparingly to create a personal and sometimes even orchestral effect using drums usually reserved for classical music. The vocals focus more on melody than lyrics I feel to create a weave of sound which I have read from other reviews makes for a dark sound but what I hear is a bunch of lovely songs, sung in a sincere and yearning way, giving way to instrumentation when required. Track 5, 'Hospital Song' features a lovely piano solo...

Going back to the Rufus Wainwright, I find here bombast which might be used in musicals and you wouldn't instantly think Ben Folds Five are trio consisting of a piano playing singer, bassist and drummer. Of course, bombast is an American specialty, and it is on display here from surfer rock to bar-room doodles to Las Vegas horns...perhaps, I am overstating here, and letting my imagination run away with me here but definitely these elements can be discerned I think, and that stable but quite self-reflective quality of the late nineties when everyone had already had enough of cheap posturing in the highly celebrity driven hedonism that seemed to be everywhere here in England and across the pond in Hollywood.

By track 7, 'Redneck Past', the alt-vibe is turned up and in some ways is at odds with itself. Does Ben Folds Five have a redneck background? The intelligence of the music would clearly indicate not which is confusing....is this an autobiographical album or a fictional creation. Who is Reinhold Messner?

The singer's father makes an appearance in the form of what is possibly a real voicemail message, while the band jazzes on. It's all a bit wacky 90's style, a mish-mash of many different elements changing regularly. Is this pop? Yes, almost but it wouldn't be played on the radio, and is more suited being listened to as whole, as the concept-album it clearly is. It is masterful, bringing in some Pink Floyd prog elements on 'Regrets' aswell. This track reminds me of Everything Everything's 'Regret'. It has a similar question to ask. 

As stated earlier, the album is a sort of question in musical form: Who am I? What will I do now with this life? Maybe Reinhold Messner is us, and the 'Unauthorized Biography' points to the fact that this is not the official document, just a piece of music (with some words but not too much that they drown out the music). Essential this is a geek's exploration of himself in a sometimes sickly cinematic sweet sort of way but oftentimes highly entertaining and competent musically way. It's hard to pigeon-hole Ben Folds Five into any one category upon listening to this album and it's a shame this was the last album in their run of three before they broke up, coming back together to release one more album in 2012, The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind, a highly pretentious album title if I may say.

Anyway, that's all I have to say about this one. Listen to it and enjoy this slightly immature if not solid musical treat. I include an outtake from the album which was released separately.