Ben Folds Five’s self-titled debut – A Track-by-Track Appreciation

This was the very first full-album deep dive I posted on the site, way back in 2010, and at the time I said it was on my short list of favorite albums ever.

Well, more than a decade and a half later, I haven’t changed that opinion. This remains a crackerjack debut album, one bursting with the ingenuity and creativity of three brilliant, restless musicians.

Ben Folds went on to do a lot of incredible work, both with the Five and as a soloist, but this DIY masterpiece may stand as his crowning achievement.

  1. ‘Jackson Cannery’
  2. ‘Philosophy’
  3. ‘Julianne‘
  4. ‘Where’s Summer B.?’
  5. ‘Alice Childress’
  6. ‘Underground’
  7. ‘Sports & Wine’
  8. ‘Uncle Walter’
  9. ‘Best Imitation of Myself’
  10. ‘Video’
  11. ‘The Last Polka’
  12. ‘Boxing’