Last month Ben Folds announced a special 30th Anniversary edition of his debut recording with the Ben Folds Five. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As he reflected in the liners that accompany that release, \u201cHere\u2019s my 59-year-old self\u2019s take on the album we made when I was 28: Overall, it\u2019s good! It\u2019s NOT the kind of record you\u2019d hear produced these days. It\u2019s pretty rough and tumble, mostly in a good way. And it\u2019s emphatically unique. It\u2019s from an era when you could still identify a band by the instrumentalists, before you\u2019d even hear the vocalist. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s been a thing since computers allowed us to get things just right.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis first Ben Folds Five record doesn\u2019t even TRY to do the things most might aspire to, with or without the technology, and that\u2019s one of the first things I hear while listening. Many indie rockers of the 90s claimed to be raw and not care. We actually lived that, though it\u2019s just not obvious because it\u2019s based around piano and complex songs, which was an odd combo,\u201d adding, \u201cfor better or worse \u2013 wow. I\u2019m hearing a record that really just puts it out there, and I\u2019m glad we did all of that.\u201d<\/p>\n
His appreciation for that album extends to his bandmates as well, and they will reunite for a series of dates in 2027. Although the group\u2019s name was Ben Folds Five, it actually was a trio that featured Folds on piano and vocals along with bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee. The trio came together in 1993, releasing three albums before parting company in 2000. They later reconvened in the studio in 2011 and on tour the following year before moving on to other ventures. After the 2023 passing of Caleb Southern, who produced their first three\u00a0albums, they\u00a0played a few\u00a0songs at a concert in his honor but have not mounted a proper\u00a0run of shows since 2012.<\/p>\n