Reviewed by Ian Phillips.
By Ben Folds, New West Records 2023.
Ben Folds releases the second single from his upcoming album What Matters Most which is due for release on June 2nd.
What Matters Most is his first album since 2015 although he has released a series of singles in the meantime.
Exhausting Lover is a humorous track about a one-night fling with an energetic young woman who was insatiable.
It’s part of a collection of songs that range from the tragic to the absurd and on to hope and despair, gratitude, longing, loss and the myriad of emotions humans experience.
Ben comments that “there’s a lifetime of craft and experience that’s focussed into this record. Sonically, lyrically, emotionally, I don’t think it’s an album I could have made at any other point in my career.”
If Winslow Gardens, the first single, and Exhausting Lover are anything to go by then the album should be terrific.
The album was produced by Joe Pisapia (K.D. Lang, Guster) in Nashville and features guest appearances by Dodie, Tall Heights, and Ruby Amanfu, and Ben’s backing band for the recordings is excellent.
Ben Folds first came to our attention in the mid-90s as the main man behind the Ben Folds Five who went on to achieve multiple international hit singles and Gold Record albums.
He went solo in 2001 and repeated the success which places him in select company of artists who have achieved phenomenal success in both fields.
Add to this his memoir, A Dream About Lightning Bugs, which also became a best seller and we have a rare artist indeed.
If you’re yet to be convinced that he is a true Renascence Man then add to the above that he is a prolific photographer with gallery shows in the USA and Europe, performed in film and television shows, composed music for stage, and serves on the boards of multiple arts and other organisations.
He is certainly a workaholic. No wonder it’s taken him so long to put this album out.
Have a listen to the singles and keep an eye out for the album.
