Sunday, April 26, 2009

That's Classic: Ben Folds Five "Magic"

Tuesday marks the release of Ben Folds Presents: University A Cappella. It's a collection Folds helmed himself that uses college a cappella groups to cover his songs. It's a cool idea and definitely one that screams Ben Folds. Unfortunately the execution could be better. The background vocals are generally really unique and interesting but too many times the lead vocalists are so uninspired or theatery that it just makes you want to listen to the originals. Perhaps it would have worked better if Folds had sung lead on all of them himself.

Not many songwriters write better moody, melancholy songs than Ben Folds. "Still Fighting It" "Fred Jones, Pt. 2" "Not The Same" "The Luckiest" (all of which can be found on the excellent Rockin' The Suburbs CD), "That's Me Trying" (from the surprisingly good album he did with William Shatner), and this ridiculously good one I'm posting here from his Ben Folds Five Days: "Magic." Because it turns out that no one performs Ben Folds songs better than the man himself.