Ben Folds Five - Naked Baby Photos

Ah the b-sides collection. Overachieving child of the compilation family. Look at him, all big and successful in New York, never comes back home, rarely calls. I suppose I also wouldn’t call if my family did nothing but wallow in their own filth, but some family feeling would be appreciated. And its not like there aren’t bad b-sides collections, its just that when b-sides are good they are really good, and when they are bad they are at least interesting.

See, unlike “greatest hits” collections, there is a built in quality control mechanism in b-sides. Some producer can be given three grand by a record label to randomly decide on an album’s worth of “hits.” B-sides, by their nature, require a career’s worth of work, and even though they are by their nature the “leftovers” of that career, they are often the best of the leftovers. Things that kill in concert but would not translate to disc, like “For Those Of Ya'll Who Wear Fannie Packs,” or songs that were dropped from the album for nearly inexplicable label reasons, like “Emaline,” which may be one of Ben Fold’s finest songs. Obviously I like this album, but I would say this is one of the finest b-sides I have had the pleasure of listening to.

On the one hand I was never going to hate this. Part of the reason b-sides are better than other compilations is that one tends to buy them only for bands you already admire. I am a huge Ben Folds fan, both Five and otherwise. It is my oh-so-humble opinion that, though he is beloved of a legion of adoring fans, he is bizarrely underappreciated by critics. There have been other rock pianists, but no one really incorporated it as well as Ben Folds and the Five. By completely ignoring the guitar and fuzzing the bass they were essentially the first group since Elvis to successfully fuck with the rock formula. Their songs contain a hidden track where you can hear them playing with the very sinew and bones of rock n roll in a way few others have done. Compared to the Five, other people are just a rock band with a piano along side. They may be the most important band to have ever- oh dear I seem to have soiled my pants.

Anyway, I was always going to like this, but this really is a particularly good B-sides collection. Even the liner notes are well constructed, containing short blurbs about how the song was written, where it was recorded, and why it was left off the original albums. Most of these songs are good in their own right, some could even have been singles. The album also directly captures the sense of humor of the band in a way the main albums can only hint at. This alone would add materially to the Ben Folds Five body of work. Finally, the album actually has the flow of an album, which is something you rarely see in Greatest Hits and almost never see in the average Comp. Like normal albums, thought has been put into the ordering of the songs, and as such there is a noticeable progression in the energy of the music. It isn’t a subtle or complex movement, mostly from single-quality material up front to live tracks in the middle and extreme rarities at the end, but it dosent need to be. Simply having an organizing principal makes the work more enjoyable, for the same reason most songs are not random jumbles of notes.

With apologies to Sonic Youth.

So I am keeping this, and you should buy it if you like Ben Folds and his Five. Most of these I say to buy if you find them cheaply, but In this case I would seek this out. It is a good album and worth money.