Nineties indie kids rejoice – everyone’s favourite alternative piano pop-rock trio is back.
It’s been a good 13 years since fans have had an album from Jessee, Sledge and Folds to play with, a period which has seen several side projects from the rhythm section and a successful solo career from the main man.
It’s easy to conceive the threesome’s musical tastes could have changed a lot since then – but thankfully, The Sound Of The Life of The Mind is classic Ben Folds Five.
Just as in the past, the songs are a fascinating give-and-take between the vocals, the piano and the tightly refined playfulness of the bass and drums.
The vocal lines work to anchor the lively piano harmonies – Folds can pull marvellous things out of those 88 keys.
Lyrically, the songs are brimming with the same endearing quirkiness we’ve come to expect. Their speciality is in the bittersweet, constructing stories that are both kitschy and surprisingly raw.
There’s ‘Sky High,’ a heavy, wallowing ballad in the same vein as 1997’s ‘Brick,’ while ‘Thank You For Breaking My Heart’ is Folds at his most heart-wrenching.
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But before you get too sad, there’s the rollicking ‘Do It Anyway,’ and the eponymous title track ‘The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind,’ the latter of which is just waiting to be used in the dramatic climax of an indie rom-com.
This album isn’t what you would call groundbreaking, but it’s more than enough to satisfy old Ben Folds Five fans, and has the definite potential to make the band some new ones.
