“More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful,” says Ben Folds. “I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.”
Indeed, Ben Folds masterful new collection, What Matters Most, isn’t so much a statement as it is an offering, an open hand reaching out to all those wounded and bewildered by a world that seems to make less and less sense every day. Recorded in East Nashville with co-producer Joe Pisapia, the album marks Folds’ first new studio release in eight years, and it’s a bold, timely, cinematic work, one that examines the tragic and the absurd in equal measure as it reckons with hope and despair, gratitude and loss, identity and perspective. The songs are bittersweet here, hilarious at times, but often laced with a quiet sense of longing and dread: a text message goes unanswered; an old classmate descends into the dark depths of internet conspiracies; a relationship unravels in the middle of a lake.
Ben Folds: What Matters Most
And yet, taken as a whole, the result is an undeniably joyful record that refuses to succumb to the weight of the world around it, an ecstatic reminder of all the beauty and promise hiding in plain sight for anyone willing (and present enough) to recognize their moments as they arrive.
Audio CD:
Vinyl:
- But Wait, There’s More
- Clouds With Ellipses
- Exhausting Lover
- Fragile
- Kristine From The 7th Grade
- Back To Anonymous
- Winslow Gardens
- Paddleboat Breakup
- What Matters Most
- Moments (feat. Tall Heights)
Product Dimensions : 5.59 x 0.39 x 4.92 inches; 3.53 Ounces
Manufacturer : New West Records
Original Release Date : 2023
Label : New West Records
ASIN : B0BTYFHDHF
Country of Origin : USA
Number of discs : 1