Ben Folds Five - Whatever and Ever Amen Reissue

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New linear notes, a handful (7) of b-sides, and a slight "remastering" are the fodder for this re-release. It may hardly seem relevant in 2005 to have this album, much less a reissue, and of course Sony is pushing it to sell with Ben Folds' new solo album "Songs for Silverman." Nonetheless, this was kind of an important record in 1997; to radio, to the dichotomy of mainstream music (a piano band? No way!), and more importantly, to fourteen year-olds and college freshman boys everywhere. Does this reissue hold up? Are the b-sides enough or should they have included unreleased songs like "Prince Charming" as they had planned at one time? Does this album have the same weight as it did in '97 or have we outgrown it?

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Saturday, 23 April 2005 22:22 (twenty years ago)

As a radio DJ in 96-97, I refused to play this crap. So there.

― i've got my philosophy, Saturday, 23 April 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

Jesus Christ...of all the albums out there wallowing in relative obscurity, PINING for their due for proper credit and re-assessment, why is this album getting re-issued? Do please just stop what you're doing and find it in your hearts to give me one break.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 22:26 (twenty years ago)

This album effectively was my mid teenage years.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Saturday, 23 April 2005 22:34 (twenty years ago)

It does make me feel stupid for buying all the bloody singles. But, as my original is missing - apart from the CD, which is still in a CD folder somewhere, I will probbaly buy this. That said, there's nothing appreciably wrong with how the original sounds.

― edward o (edwardo), Saturday, 23 April 2005 22:55 (twenty years ago)

I like the album a lot but gaw

― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 23 April 2005 23:17 (twenty years ago)

shouldn't there be like a 10 year minimum for this shit?

― miccio (miccio), Saturday, 23 April 2005 23:18 (twenty years ago)

Why is Tim Buckley's Starsailor out of print, and ? and the Mysterians debut is out of print, and this bullshit's in every used CD store from LA to Portland, Maine, and it's getting reissued, and Starsailor and ? aren't? Somebody please explain.

― i've got my philosophy, Saturday, 23 April 2005 23:25 (twenty years ago)

shouldn't there be like a 10 year minimum for this shit?

Antoine in striking moment of crystaline logic shockah!

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Saturday, 23 April 2005 23:35 (twenty years ago)

did anyone get the sixth month anniversary edition reissue of the last elvis costello?

― j blount (papa la bas), Sunday, 24 April 2005 00:15 (twenty years ago)

man it annoyed me to see that Delivery Man reissue. I mean, I have no problem with Elvis doing a 2nd disc of bonus material for his new albums while Rhino's doing it with the old ones, but at least Cruel Smile was a seperate package and there was no re-purchasing anything involved.

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 24 April 2005 04:35 (twenty years ago)

anyway I really liked this album when it came out! I dunno if I've listened to it at all in a long time. my copy's a little scratched and I think I had a couple of the singles and liked the b-sides, so I might be the right audience for the reissue, although I agree it's not that justified.

― Al (sitcom), Sunday, 24 April 2005 04:36 (twenty years ago)

I used to love it when school DJs would play "Brick" as a slow-dance song. Nothing puts me in the mood to get close to a girl quite like a traumatic abortion.

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Sunday, 24 April 2005 04:38 (twenty years ago)

this record is only EIGHT fucking years old! it isn't as if this is the white album.

wtf is WRONG w/ the rekkid companies?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 24 April 2005 04:44 (twenty years ago)

and ben folds five = the billy joel of the 90s. only w/t the charm (!) or the occasionally good songs (!!)

again, WTF?!?

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 24 April 2005 04:45 (twenty years ago)

"shouldn't there be like a 10 year minimum for this shit?"

i just had a vision of Limp Biscut reissues

*shudder*

LIMP B-SIDES

― JD from CDepot, Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:09 (twenty years ago)

i really like ben folds, hes a tender and capable songwriter, with moments of brilliance and has a solid voice--and i am looking forward to this.

― anthony, Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:15 (twenty years ago)

Also. The re-release of this record ISN'T the cause of YOUR favourite record not being re-released. Get the fuck over it.

― edward o (edwardo), Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:24 (twenty years ago)

ben folds five = the billy joel of the 90s

They only released 3 albums, and yet BF5 has 35 or 40 really great songs, whereas Billy Joel has about 4. Also BF5 are charming gentlemen with senses of humor, whereas Billy Joel is a fucking douchebag. The only thing they have in common is piano and good drummers.

So yeah, I think BF5 is outstanding, and I also think this re-release is completely unnecessary. And the studio version of "Dr Pyser" in the bonus tracks is not nearly as good as their live version.

― billstevejim, Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:37 (twenty years ago)

I used to love it when school DJs would play "Brick" as a slow-dance song. Nothing puts me in the mood to get close to a girl quite like a traumatic abortion.

Congratulations, you're the millionth person to make that joke. :)

― billstevejim, Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:47 (twenty years ago)

id be psyched about this if i didnt own a copy of the album first time around. five bucks vintage vinyl in fords, nj still has promo LP copies in the cut out bin for a dollar like they did in 1997.

― maria tessa sciarrino (theoreticalgirl), Sunday, 24 April 2005 05:55 (twenty years ago)

I may buy it so I have "Mitchell Lane" and "All Shook Up" to hand without having to root through my singles collection. What were the other b-sides from that time, anyway?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 24 April 2005 08:30 (twenty years ago)

oh great - please let them reissue this so i can step over the bodies of those men wallowing in self-pity over their inability to interact with love interests.

(used to have to step over one classmate who laid in the hallway, right by the stairs on the 2nd fl. he'd be listening to this on blast, holding a box of tic tacs, and eating them as if the breathmints might kill him.

thinking of this i still laugh - we were sophomores in college: this album made me hate my roommates!

― blackmail.is.my.life (blackmail.is.my.life), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:06 (twenty years ago)

Didn't Weezer's first album get a similar treatment recently? I mean, yeah, I know Weezer and Ben Folds have their share of fans (more so the former than the latter), but are these grand re-releases really warranted?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:09 (twenty years ago)

Weezer's Blue Album was 10 years old and it was kind of nice to see their re-appreciation acknowledged. Illmatic got the same treatment. Celebrating a cultural touchstone's 1-0 makes sense (even if some people are still in shock that its a fondly recalled cultural touchstone).

And, man, little to NO albums warrant being released in a bulkier passage with some shitty live tracks and a few b-sides. Make a COMP, dammit! These months later bonus discs are like punishments for making an album popular. "Aw, you liked it! Here's your chance to BUY IT AGAIN!"

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:28 (twenty years ago)

The Illmatic reissue was pretty cheap, and possibly fans might feed up 10 bucks just for the six remixes and outtakes. Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain was pretty exemplary, the actual album only being 1/4 of the package.

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:30 (twenty years ago)

i CAN understand illmatic getting the reissue treatment b/c it IS an important record. to a certain extent, i can even understand reissuing weezer's 1st record or crooked rain, crooked rain (even though i can't stand pavement, i acknowledge their importance to some).

it doesn't seem to me that ben folds five is in the league of EITHER of those, though.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

it's not, though if it was 2007 I'd at least be able to say "ah, fair game." Plus it helps that its an album I really enjoy (though I've never felt the urge to buy any more Ben Folds)

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:34 (twenty years ago)

I think Ben Folds Five have definitely been an antecedant to some of the bigger bands around today, I'm just not sure who those bands are.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:37 (twenty years ago)

"If U C Jordan"

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:42 (twenty years ago)

Ben Folds Five, We Invented The Piano Ballad!

― miccio (miccio), Sunday, 24 April 2005 14:43 (twenty years ago)

Hahahahaha

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Sunday, 24 April 2005 15:09 (twenty years ago)

x-post: "All Shook Up" isn't included as a b-side. In fact, they left off quite a few from their singles ("Champagne Supernova" cover is another example). They're saving them for a bigger "Naked Baby Photos"-type collection sometime in the future. So I agree this isn't even a good reissue. On the remastering side, I think they've cranked up Ben's lead vocals just a bit on a couple of tracks ("One Angry Dwarf," "Kate").

Yeah, what are some other groups (inlcluding Ben Folds Five themselves--they were the original piano schtick stealers) that people would push on BFF fans only because they "heard that they have a piano in the band!!!!" I can only think of The Prom and Koufax.

― earinfections (Nick Twisp), Sunday, 24 April 2005 16:10 (twenty years ago)

Keane?

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Sunday, 24 April 2005 16:27 (twenty years ago)

Simply adding B-sides and/or live stuff is bullshit. If this release had demos and other things that illuminate the album or give it depth, then I'd ~~buy it~~ get one from the flacks.

This kind of shitty re-release is par for the course, yet another sign that major labels are grasping for straws in the middle of a gigantic shift towards digital distribution.

― don weiner, Sunday, 24 April 2005 17:33 (twenty years ago)

It's lame if you buy it on cd, but it's cool for the people who buy albums from iTunes - it's less money for the reissue version, and you get the extra songs more or less for free.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 24 April 2005 19:44 (twenty years ago)

To be fair, isn't this reissue and some others like it more about helping out newer fans by giving them the extra songs in a convenient, affordabe package rather than having to track down out-of-print singles and compilations, whether it's in stores or on p2p?

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 24 April 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

except that people are saying it doesn't have all the appropriate extra songs, so it'll frustrate newer fans too.

― kit brash (kit brash), Monday, 25 April 2005 01:50 (twenty years ago)

Haha, didn't KANYE'S album just get remastered/reissued?

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 25 April 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

eight months pass...

what is the song "Brick" about??

― barbie bee, Monday, 2 January 2006 00:30 (twenty years ago)

Ben's girlfriend ruined his post-Xmas, pre-NYE period by going and getting an abortion. Silly mare.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Monday, 2 January 2006 00:33 (twenty years ago)

ben folds is a wanker.

― Freud Junior, Third Cousin to Chuck Norris (Freud Junior), Monday, 2 January 2006 03:42 (twenty years ago)

Classic 90's album Reissue

― Tape Store (Tape Store), Monday, 2 January 2006 03:52 (twenty years ago)

they might as well reissue the telephone poles' complete discography.

― Christopher Costello (CGC), Monday, 2 January 2006 03:55 (twenty years ago)

Ben Folds apologists make me embarrassed for them.

― Sarah S., Monday, 2 January 2006 04:02 (twenty years ago)

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