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Rating: Ode to the idiot.
Give me my money back, bitch, I'm tired of doing the dirty work for you. Above all, don't forget my beloved and flatulent black t-shirt, companion of 1000 nervous breakdowns. You must be happy now, that we've reached the point of irreversible rupture; on the doormat outside the front door, my damn name was written for the use and enjoyment of your loving little feet: and now what remains? Nothing, an emptiness in my stomach and a bulimic hatred towards everything you represented. A poor Christ still on the cross, that's what I am. To think it would have been fun to be Kate for a day... But now it's past, and the past doesn't return. Unless you're Sting at 55, you call Copeland and Andy Summers; and you decide to go on tour after decades: Mr. Ben Folds has a complicated liaison with the Universofemmina, and he's not alone. That's why a mature modern male in sexual withdrawal prefers oral relations with a rubber doll. Always sweet, available, and, naturally, silently off-limits. It doesn't have a soul, but when I found you, a filly riding a porn stallion, did you have one?! And Francesca Lodo, does she have a soul? Sigh. Wretched me. Twenty years of proud feminism ended begging in a 'Sex and the city' embrace.
Mathematics is not an opinion (I prefer Jessica Biel).
Mr. Ben Folds has 4 imaginary friends (actually two) to share a true passion for the most noble pop, vocal harmonies of brianwilsonian memory, and a rhythmic and wild approach to the piano that recalls both the luciferian Jerry Lee Lewis and the young Elton of the early '70s, devoid of options like the wild hairpiece provided by Cesare Ragazzi. Ben decides to call the trio 'Ben Folds Five', and to hell with the 'Fab Four'... It will always be amen anyway. A fantastic amen. Liberating. Sincere. Twilight like the sunset of a relationship torn to pieces. The intro of 'Whatever and Ever Amen' is striking: 'One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces' is a sort of programmatic manifesto of Ben Folds' best intentions; piano stomped by the leader, frenetic drums by Darren Jessee and the vehement, growling bass by Robert Sledge. 'Fair' travels through time between the late '60s spring breeze of Bacharach and the joyous melancholy of the Beach Boys. It almost seems to want to take us for a stroll on the set of 'Buttati Bernardo!' to live the naive and technicolor story of the protagonist. 'Brick' is a suspended ballad, soft, with a killer chorus from Ours.. Everything is more subdued, intimate but damn informative of a dormant but alive feeling; not yet defeated by the ugliness of a bastard life's. 3 songs, 3 knockout blows. If it weren't for the arrival of the gender war of 'Song for the Dumped', mentioned in the opening, the extraordinary 'Selfless, Cold and Composed' (the romantic cynicism of Randy Newman meeting a '90s loser attitude Billy Joel..), the disarming smile of 'Kate', the elegy of 'Smoke' fading into the nighttime lullaby in 'Cigarette' and the futile battle of those who have already lost, maybe a love snatched by the hair... And between the doo-wop cabaret of 'Steven's Last Night in Town' and the post-Beatlesian 'Missing the War' creeps the suspicion that a page of our book is closed forever. 'Evaporated'. And ever amen. Because life is like a bin full of shit (until you empty it). It stinks. Worse than the garbage in Campania.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
02 Fair (05:55)
He shouted out his last word
And he stumbled through the yard
And she shattered her last china plate
And spun off in the car
When he lunged onto the hood
She stopped to tell him she'd been wrong
He was thrown head over heels
Into the traffic coming on
But then
All is fair
All is fair in love
Ba Ba Ba, Ba Ba Ba X15
Did you get my other letters
Sometimes I think I oughta call
Cause you know I often
Wonder if you open them at all
Every couple nights or so
You know you pop into my dreams
I just can't get rid of you
Like you got rid of me
Ohh but I send my best
Cause God knows you've seen my worst
Yeah well,
All is fair
All is fair in love
Ba Ba Ba, Ba Ba Ba X15
Aww, Aww, Aww
All this breathing in Never breathing out
All this breathing in Never breathing out
All this breathing in Never breathing...out
Well, I guess she made her way
Through the mob too late to hear him say
That he'd gotten all he'd wanted
A crowd to watch him bear the pain
He'd been keeping in
So what-
All is fair
All is fair in love
Yeah well,
All is fair,
All is fair in love
Ba Ba Ba, Ba Ba Ba X15
Am I right?
Am I right?
Not only am I right
I'm lonely and I'm right
Yeah
03 Brick (04:32)
Six a.m. day after Christmas
I throw some clothes on in the dark
The smell of cold
Car seat is freezing
The world is sleeping
I am numb
Up the stairs to her apartment
She is balled up on the couch
Her mom and dad went down to Charlotte
They're not home to find us out
And we drive
Now that I have found someone
I'm feeling more alone
Than I ever have before
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
They call her name at seven-thirty
I pace around the parking lot
And I walk down to buy her flowers
And sell some gifts that I got
Can't you see
It's not me you're dying for
Now she's feeling more alone
Then she ever has before
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
As weeks went by
It showed that she was not fine
They told me, "Son it's time to tell the truth," and
She broke down and I broke down
Cause I was tired of lying
Driving back to her apartment
For the moment we're alone
Yeah she's alone
And I'm alone
Now I know it
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
Off the coast and I'm headed nowhere
She's a brick and I'm drownin' slowly
04 Song for the Dumped (03:40)
So you wanted to take a break?
Slow it down some and have some space?
F**k you too!
Give me my money back, give me my money back, you bitch.
I want my money back.
And don't forget, and don't forget to give me back my black t-shirt.
I wish I hadn't bought you dinner
Right before you dumped me on your front porch.
Give me my money back, give me my money back, you bitch.
I want my money back.
And don't forget, and don't forget to give me back my black t-shirt.
So you wanted to take a break?
Slow it down some and have some space?
Give me my money back, give me my money back you bitch!
I want my money back, I want my money back!
And don't forget...
05 Selfless, Cold and Composed (06:10)
I said what you wanted to hear
And what I wanted to say
So I will take it back
Are all the dishes in tact
Let them be broken
It's easy to be
Easy and free
When it doesn't mean anything
You remain
Selfless, cold and composed
You've done me no
Favor to call and be nice
Telling me I
Can take anything I like
Your don't owe me to be so polite
You've done no wrong
You've done no wrong
Get out of my sight
It's easy to be
Easy and free
When it doesn't mean anything
To remain
Selfless, cold and composed
Come on baby
Now throw me a right to the chin
Don't just stare like you never cared
I know you did
You just smiled
Like a bank teller
Telling me blankly, have a nice life
Come on baby
Throw me a right to the chin
Just one sign
That could show me that you give a shit
But you just smile politely
And I grow weaker and I ...
Said what you wanted to hear
And what I wanted to say
So I will take it back
It's easy to be
Easy and free
When it doesn't mean anything
When it doesn't mean anything
You can take anything
So selfless, cold and composed
06 Kate (03:13)
She plays wipeout on the drums
the squirrels and the birds come
Gather around to sing the guitar
Oh I...have you got nothing to say
When all words fail she speaks
Her mix tape's a masterpiece
Walks through the garden
so the roses can see
Oh I...have you got nothing to say
And you can see the daisies
in her footsteps
Dandelions, butterflies
I wanna be Kate
Everyday she wars the same thing
I think she smokes pot
She's everything I want, She's everything I'm not
Oh. I...
Have you got nothing to say
She never gets wet
She smiles and it's a rainbow
And she speaks and she breathes
I wanna be Kate
Down by the Rosemary and Cameron
She hands out the Bhagaved Gita
I see her around every couple days
I wanna see her so that
I can say...hey Kate
She never gets wet
She smiles and it's a rainbow
Oh oh...You can see
I wanna wanna wanna wanna be
Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate, Kate
No, no, no, no, no
07 Smoke (04:52)
Leaf by Leaf and page by page
Throw this book away
All the sadness all the rage
Throw this book away
Rip out the binding and tear the glue
All of the grief we never even knew
We had it all along
Now its smoke
The things we've written in it
Never really happened
All of the people come and gone
Never really lived
All of the people have come have gone
No one to forgive smoke
We will not write a new one
There will not be a new one
Another one, another one
Here's an evening dark with shame
Throw it on the fire
here's the time I took the blame
Throw it on the fire
Here's the time we didn't speak
it seemed for years and years
Here's a secret
No one will ever know the
reasons for the tears
They are smoke
We will never write a new one
There will not be a new one
Another one, another one
Where do all the secrets live
They travel in the air
You can smell them when they burn
They travel
Those who say the past is not dead
Can stop and smell the smoke
You keep saying the past is not dead
Stop and smell the smoke
You keep on saying the past is not even past
And you keep saying
We are, smoke
Smoke, smoke
08 Cigarette (01:38)
Fred Jones was worn out
from caring for his often
screaming and crying wife
during the day
but
he couldn't sleep at night for
fear that she
in a stupor from the drugs
that didn't ease the pain
would set the house ablaze
with a cigarette
10 Battle of Who Could Care Less (03:16)
Do you not hear me anymore
I know it's not your thing to care
I know it's cool to be so bored
It sucks me in
when you're aloof
It sucks me in, it sucks it works
I guess it's cool to be alone
Do you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Everyday you wake up late
Sometimes I wish I was
that way
And you think Rockford Files is cool
But there are some things
that you would change
if it were up to you
So think about your masterpiece
Watch the Rockford Files
And call to see if Paul can score some weed.
Will you never rest
Fighting the battle of who could care less
Unearned unhappiness
That's all right I guess...
I've got this great idea
Why don't we pitch it to the Franklin Fucking Mint
Fine pewter portraits of
general apathy and major boredom singing...
Whatever and ever Amen
Oh well maybe not, I'll try again
This should cheer you up for sure
See I've got your old I.D.
And you're all dressed up like the Cure
you never rest
fighting the battle
of who could care less
unearned unhappiness
You're my hero I confess
11 Missing the War (04:19)
All is quiet his tired eyes
see figures jotted down
And clothes all strewn around
the bedroom floor
Now nothing's adding up
And nothing's making sense
She's sleeping like a baby
She doesn't know he wasn't meant for this
I'm missing the war
I'm missing the war all night
Missing the war
He drove home again
Pissed and beaten
Its really no big deal
It happens all the time
Its no big deal
I'm missing the war
I'm missing the war all night
Missing the war
I'm missing the war
'Till beads of sunlight hit me in the morning
So much time so little to say
Time may fly
And dreams may die
The shaking voice that tells him go
Still thinks he might
He knows he won't
I'm missing the war
Missing the war all night
Missing the war
12 Evaporated (04:26)
What I've kept with me
And what I've thrown away
And where the hell I've ended up
On this glary random day
Were the things I really cared about
Just left along the way
From being too pent up and proud
Woke up way too late
Feeling hung over and old
And the sun was shining bright
And I walked barefoot down the road
Started thinking about my old man
It seems that all men
Wanna get into a car and go...
Anywhere?
[Chorus]
Here I stand,
Sad & free
I can't cry and I can't see
What I've done
Oh God...What have I done
Don't you know I'm numb, man
No I can't feel a thing at all
Cause its all smiles and business these days
and I'm indifferent to the loss
I've faith that there's a soul somewhere
that's leading me around
I wonder if she knows
Which way is down...
[Chorus]
I poured my heart out
I poured my heart out
it evaporated...see?
Blind man on a canyon's edge
of a Panoramic scene
Or maybe I'm a kite
That's flying high & random
Dangling a string
Or slumped over in a vacant room
Head on a stranger's knee
I'm sure back home
They think I've lost my mind.
[Chorus]
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