Ben folds army sheet music
Sledge gets some interesting mileage out of sound effects made on the strings of his bass. As he often does, Folds makes pop culture references in his lyric, name-checking Billy Idol and rapper Kool Moe Dee. Picking up a lyrical cue from “Army,” “Your Redneck Past” sounds like a (very good) outtake from the first BFF album. More than anywhere else on the album – and, for that matter, throughout their entire catalog – here, Ben Folds Five sounds like the Wrecking Crew. And Folds’ barrelhouse piano solo is played with wonderfully reckless abandon. Jessee’s snappy drumming and Sledge’s beefy bass provide the most solid of foundations. The massed horn charts are hair-raising, taking a funny yet poignant song and transforming it into a brassy tour-de-force. The reverie of that song is broken by the album’s centerpiece, “Army.” The autobiographical tune has no end of clever lyrics, and the tune only gets better as it progresses. It’s followed by the somnambulant and hazy “Hospital Song,” a downbeat cousin to “Brick.” It features a brief, jazzy and understated piano solo. And – yet again – those strings! John Mark Painter’s conducting and arrangement on Biography raises what would have otherwise been a very good album to the level of a truly great one. It’s a triumph in most every way.ĭarren Jessee’s “Magic” sounds like an elegiac Elton John deep album track.
BEN FOLDS ARMY SHEET MUSIC FULL
In the third verse, nearly all the instruments (except drums and strings) drop out, making the re-entry of the full group (with more harmony vocals) even more effective. Once again, the string arrangement adds a great deal of emotional content to an already stirring tune. The melancholy “Mess” opens with a tinny piano playing a part that sounds straight out of Al Stewart’s “On the Border.” The gentle yet impassioned melody hearkens back to early ‘70s singer-songwriters. But it’s the very Tijuana Brass-sounding trumpet solo – backed by more strings – by which the song leaves its most indelible mark. Stacked vocal harmonies, a kinetic piano part and muscular bass playing are among the song’s highlights. The song makes full and effective use of Folds’ facility with aural shade and light. “Don’t Change Your Plans” is more conventional, with Folds channeling his inner Harry Nilsson: fetchingly alluring melody and literate love lyrics. The maelstrom of instruments – heavy on the strings, and with prominent use of throbbing analog synthesizer – likely surprised listeners who fell in love with the group over songs like “Underground” and “The Battle of Who Could Care Less.” BFF on the cover of CMJ New Music Monthly circa 1999 The tune’s midsection chugs along like the Move, while Folds sings alternately in an oddly dispassionate tone and then a highly emotive roar. The song’s somewhat angular melody signals that Biography isn’t going to be a readily accessible rock album. It’s nearly a minute and a half before Folds begins singing. Sweeping strings add grandeur to the song, with buzzing bass, slashing cymbal hits and breathtaking violin ensemble work.
But when Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee join in, the arrangement explodes it’s a melding of baroque and hard rock textures. A hypnotic piano melody in three-quarter time, it starts off with a more classical feel than is typical of the group’s earlier material. But time has proven that BFF’s third album may well be its finest.
From its title on down, Biography is a strange, experimental and not entirely immediate collection of songs. The latter motivation led to the group’s curious third (and seemingly final) album of new material, 1999’s The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. If one listened closely along the way, though, it was clear that Folds and his bandmates were simultaneously committed to the trio format yet bristling to move beyond it. VIDEO: Ben Folds Five – Underground (Sessions at West 54th)