Meet Ben Folds. Hello Ben Folds. To steal a statement from one of my favourite blogs: He is quite realistically the best contemporary pop songwriter in the world right now. Bold statement, I know.
During an early 2005 Australian tour, Folds teamed up with WASO, the West Australian Symphony Orchestra. Their performances were documented for a live DVD, and the resulting concerts are some of the most glorious, lush symphonic pop I've ever heard, save a Flaming Lips album or two. New arrangements of songs from his "Rockin' the Suburbs" LP take glorious advantage of WASO's full string and woodwind sections. "Zak and Sara" & "Not the Same" are personal favorites and each well mixed track drips sweet like audio honey. It's a move Folds has since used again in re-recording and mixing EP tracks of his for last year's Supersunnyspeedgraphic LP, and the disk offers a refreshing balance to the bare piano of 2002's Ben Folds Live.
Download Links:
-Ben Folds & the West Australian Symphony Orchestra: Live in Perth (full bootleg album RAR). Buy the DVD here.
-Ben Folds: "In Between Days" (The Cure Cover)
-Ben Folds: "Bitches Ain't Shit" (Dr. Dre & Snoop Doggy Dogg Cover)
Youtube clip links:
-Not The Same (Conducting an orchestra and the audience on my favourite song)
-Army (My second favourite in a proper music video featuring his old band, Ben Folds Five. Click here for more. Oh, favourite number three: Underground)
-Tiny Dancer (Best Elton John cover ever. Much better than the RHCP version.)
-Bitches Ain't Shit (Myspace Gig- featuring guitar orchestra and... suicide attempt)
-Rock This Bitch (Improvised Song- Does an improvised "Bitch" one at every gig: Orchestral, synth stylee and many more)
-Rockin' The Suburbs (Ben plays with himself)
If you like him you'll like these artists or vice versa: Ben Kweller, Beck, Bright Eyes, Coldplay, Guster, Death Cab For Cutie, The Divine Comedy, Eels, Elliott Smith, The Flaming Lips, Rufus Wainwright, The Shins, Sufjan Stevens and Weezer.
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