Ben Folds Five "Best Imitation Of Myself"

This week, I'm looking at artists that we came to play later in their career, asking the question "should we go back and play the band's earlier tracks?"

What a fun coincidence!

Ben Folds was one of the first names I thought of, when I planned this week's theme. I am a huge fan of his early work, but understand why we never really played any Ben Folds Five tracks on mvyradio, in the band's late-1990s incarnation.

How amazing is it that just yesterday came word that Ben has reunited with Darren Jesse and Robert Sledge (the original Ben Folds Five) to record a couple of new tracks for a Best Of Ben Folds set?!

Okay, so going back . . .

I loved Ben Folds Five's albums, because they seemed to fit perfectly into my life at the time.

In the mid-and-late-90s, I was young and single. I was listening to a lot of melodic pop (like Matthew Sweet) and a lot of melodic Punk (like The Descendants). And, like much of my generation, I was awash in a weird mix of irony and detachment and drama.

Ben Folds Five seemed like the ideal of my musical world. I loved the noise, I loved the tunefulness, I loved the smart and I loved the snark.

And I played the hell out of these records on my Alternative specialty show on WABN in Virginia.

But as the 90s gave way to the 2000s, I knew that Ben Folds Five wouldn't translate to my new station, mvyradio.

mvyradio's audience was slightly older than the average Alternative Radio listener. The artists we were playing a decade ago were not of the generation of detached irony. They were not noisy. They were not snarky.

Increasingly, neither was I. As my 20s gave way to my 30s, and maturity took hold, a gentler sound gradually entered my life.

And all along, I knew that it would happen to Ben Folds, too.

He had disbanded the Five, and gone solo, and I knew that as he grew and matured and moved from his 30s into his 40s, it was likely that his sound would evolve to something more in-line with mvyradio and Triple A Format station.

"Landed" from his 2005 album "Songs For Silverman" was the first Ben Folds tune that seemed to really make sense for the station. It's a song about marriage and old friends and epiphanies and reconciliation. Not theme you write about, or relate to, as an single 20-something.

But now looking back over his full career, are their songs from the early days that we could play? Are there tunes that would fit easily?

Funny enough, Ben is looking back over his career too, with the release of the 3-Disc set "The Best Imitation Of Myself," featuring the song of the same title.

Is there anything about this song that makes it sound like something we wouldn't play?

And now that Ben has worked again with his old band---the group that made a joyful noise, too snarky for mvyradio---are they making music that sounds like their young selves, picking up where they left off a decade ago? Or are they reconvening as adults, not the same guys they were in the 90s?

What do you think? Is the new song, or the old song, something we should be playing?

Hear the new Ben Folds Five song, "House."


Hear the song on Youtube.


Hear the song on Youtube.