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Song of the Day #872: ‘Underground’ – Ben Folds Five

This week I continue my exploration of Ben Folds Five’s self-titled debut album, picking up with track six, ‘Underground.’

Following the wistful ‘Where’s Summer B?‘ and ‘Alice Childress,’ ‘Underground’ shifts things back toward frivolity. It kicks off with a half-sung, half-spoken intro in which the band members trade off lines about nose rings and mosh pits. They paint a picture of a high school loser who grew up and still hasn’t found his place.

The backing vocals encourage him to come “underground,” presumably to some club scene, where he can “slam the pit fantastic” and finally “be happy.”

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Song of the Day #871: ‘Good Year For the Roses’ – Elvis Costello

My conversion from country music hater to a guy who Tivos the CMAs and owns every Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley album has been well documented on this blog. But Elvis Costello hasn’t really benefited from my change of heart.

Sure, I’ve enjoyed his forays into country styles, blended with his own rock sensibility, but that was the case even before I became a fan of country music.

Almost Blue, his one true country and western album, remains a mystery to me, banished from my CD shelf years ago never to return.

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Song of the Day #870: ‘Sweet Dreams’ – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello’s fifth album came out the same year as Trust — 1981 — and it must have thrown fans for a real loop. Almost Blue is a 32-minute record made up of 12 covers of classic country and western songs.

I wish I’d been an Elvis Costello fan at the time, because it must have been something to hear the man’s first four albums — packed with brainy wordplay and furious modern musicality — and then find out that his follow-up was something this square.

But the truth is that Costello was (and remains) a huge fan of American country music. This just happened to be the first time he explored that interest in the studio.

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Song of the Day #869: ‘Alice Childress’ – Ben Folds Five

I’ve written before about how I believe great albums have a moment when they become great. A special album is great start to finish, certainly, but there is usually a point almost halfway through when the whole thing just leaps up to another level.

‘Alice Childress’ is that point on Ben Folds Five.

This song is on my short list of favorite Ben Folds tunes, which puts it on my short list of favorite songs by anybody. It’s pretty and profound and deeply moving without ever striving to be important.

One of my favorite things about Ben Folds is that he is the opposite of pretentious — he goes out of his way to write the way people talk. And in the process he often writes far more meaningful songs than people who fancy themselves true poets.

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Song of the Day #868: ‘Where’s Summer B?’ – Ben Folds Five

Following the raucous ‘Julianne’ Ben Folds Five takes another stylistic detour with its laid-back, jazzy fourth track, ‘Where’s Summer B?’

The “Summer” in the title is actually a woman’s name — an old friend named Summer Burke — but it might just as well refer to the season, as this certainly feels like a summer song. It skips along like a kid on a sidewalk chasing the ice cream truck. To quote one YouTube commenter, “you can not be angry and listen to this song at the same time.”

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