Ben Folds Five

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风格: #流行摇滚　#独立流行　#独立摇滚　#另类摇滚　#钢琴摇滚
地区: United States of America 美国

艺人介绍

Ben Folds这个名字的确有些熟悉，Ben Folds Five又是什么？两者之间的联系应该很清楚，就像Dave Matthews和Dave Matthews Band的关系，Ben Folds Five是由Ben Folds组建的并非像他名字所说的那样是个五人组合，其实其中只有三位成员，和Keane有着同一个共同点，乐队中都没有吉他，钢琴就成了主要的乐器，这不是Ben Folds第一次抛弃乐队，独自发行专辑，之前他已经有过几张专辑，虽然没有得到重大的商业上和流行榜上的突破，不过为这张专辑奠定了基础，新专辑并没有让人感到意外，钢琴依然是专辑的主要乐器，主打歌曲Landed也是在Billboard改变统计排行榜方法之后，第一首Ben Folds登上排行榜前100的歌曲，完美的钢琴器乐，无暇的嗓音，还有不可少的吸引人的抒情旋律，像是Train还是男版的Venessa Carlton？另一点没有让人意外的就是从头至尾的钢琴抒情，没有Ben Folds Five的摇滚，没有惊耸的情绪的激荡，是一张很轻柔的钢琴曲合辑，Bastard，这首第二首单曲，让听者回到了十年前的音乐场景，过往的钢琴曲。Ben Folds的嗓音和钢琴结合在一起是最至真的搭配，他的嗓音没有过多的修饰，原始的相当真诚，在细微的起伏中同样可以体会到微妙的感情融入，欣赏You To Thank的钢琴，技巧上的突出给这首歌以经典的荣耀，写给女儿的Gracie让人对做父亲的Ben Folds慧心一笑。Trusted有着专辑中最厚重的节奏。听完之后，让人想起了Billy Jone和他的Piano Man。

Ben Folds Five的核心人物Ben Folds，以钢琴为基础的流畅旋律，再搭建上其干净的嗓音、精巧但前卫的和弦以及直导人心的合音，配合充满想像力的歌词，建立他个人独具一格的乐风.就像闭关潜心修行的修士，Ben Folds与两位乐手关在录音室里几个星期，完成这张继首张大受好评的个人专辑rocking the suburbs的第二张个人大碟songs for silverman。这张专辑原本就在2004年春天就已经完成，但是Ben Folds为了改变个人独自制作的方式，于是加入了2位成员负责鼓与贝斯的位置，以一个乐团的形式重新录制专辑。这是自从2000年Ben Folds Five解散后，Ben Folds第一次以乐团的录制音乐，与之前不同的是，Ben Folds得到更多在音乐上的灵感，不再拘泥于成员间对音乐上的紧密关系，更像是一种自由态度将三人在录音室里释放出音乐的能量聚集成11首兼具钢琴摇滚的沉稳与民谣内省的纯酿谣。

Ben Folds在Ben Folds Five的创作时期便展现身为钢琴手对流行旋律的掌控能力，单飞之后，Ben Folds似乎逐渐收敛摇滚叛逆的因子，朝向更为成熟内省的创作风格。这张新专辑可以听出这股明显的音乐取向。几乎那些可以拿来单曲的歌曲例如”Landed”、”Trusted”、”Late”、”Give Judy My Notice”都有着漂亮的旋律，与四平八稳的编曲，当然他还依然保有那手明亮激昂的钢琴旋律。”Give Judy My Notice”明晃晃如湖面泛光的Pedal Steel音色，与轻快的钢琴旋律合奏出一段恋人分手的告白。向去年自杀身亡的美国民谣摇滚歌手Elliot Smith致敬的”Late”这首歌，隐隐约约的吉他刷弹声像是Elliot的回音

Formed in 1994 in the keyboard-unfriendly environs of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Ben Folds Five started out with one big advantage over rival piano-led rock quintets; there were only three of them. Inspired by Nirvana's sinewy example ("They were great! It was like having The Who or someone around again"), this was a power trio with not an ounce of spare fat.

Already lean and hungry from making repayments on Ben Fold's baby grand piano: Folds, bass-player Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee grew ever leaner and hungrier from carrying it up and down the stairs into smokey after-hours juke-joints. Not since Jimi Hendrix' Band of Gypsies had a three piece sounded so sweet. And they proved it with a barnstorming live cover of 'Crosstown Traffic' - in the long and proud tradition of piano-led Hendrix covers, this one stood alone.

Signed to Caroline records, the Fives first single - the sublimely sarcastic anti-underground piano anthem 'Underground' - broke into the UK top 40 in late summer 1996. Even the enthusiastic patronage of Chris Evans' Radio One Breakfast Show could not diminish this songs toxic allure. All of a sudden Alice in Chains and Shed Seven were no longer hip - Billy Joel and Steven Sondheim were the new names to drop. And with the release of Ben Folds Fives irresistible eponymous debut album, a generation too young to know the joy of Elton John's 'Captain Fantastic' was soon learning to play the air piano.

Before you could say "Jools Holland is Satan's envoy," Ben Folds Five were massive in Japan. Returning to Europe in triumph in the summer of '96, the band ripped up the Reading Festival and signed to Sony. But anyone afraid that success and a second marriage might have diluted Ben Folds' acidic wit will take comfort from some of the titles on their second album 'Whatever and Ever Amen.'

'One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces,' 'Missing the War,' 'Song for the Dumped' - is this more of the delightfully acerbic story - telling that made Ben Folds Five a set text for GCSE Bitter and Twisted. "There's a little more 'I' going on in the new songs probably" Folds explains. "It was good to get a feeling of a story, but people weren't understanding how personal it was. And I wanted to prove that I could still be a valid songwriter without having to be so fucking clever all the time."

"It's pretty ambitious musically as well" he continues. "One song will have fuzz-bass and a polka band, the next will have a string section, and then there'll be one with our band as it normally is - just the basic piano, bass and drums."

The magnificently petty 'Song for the Dumped' and the anti-cool 'Battle of Who Could Care Less' pick up where 'Where's Summer B?' and 'Underground' left off, but the parts of 'Whatever and Ever Amen' that Folds is happiest with are the ones where his band go places their debut couldn't reach. Songs like 'Brick' and 'Evaporated' are so personal that their author "prefers not to be in the same room when people are listening to them."

Isn't that going to make them playing them live a bit of a problem? "In a funny way, when you're playing live, you aren't in the same room." The six months this man once spent playing every instrument in the Broadway production of 'Buddy' were not wasted, because this album is one addictive pleasure you don't have to feel guilty about.

Ben Folds Five

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