There's a Ben Folds album due out next year; hold back your shouts of joy for a moment (the rejoicing will come later). For now there is darkness. These past 10 years of album producing and LP monotony have waned on Ben. He smirks of having to promote an album, "...Then I have to pose naked at the piano, and really, I'm not a piece of meat."
Thus spake Ben. And it was good, for with the populous looking away, he descended from the Epic mountain into the valley and the lake and said "I'm tired of making albums; I think I'll just make a bunch of EPs and release them on my website." This is Solomon on a keyboard.
Explanation:
With contractual demands, the fear of KaZaA leakage or crappy bootlegging and all the hype and promo work that goes into cutting a record, there's really no point in releasing an album anymore--at least not in the regular way. Factoring in current slumping music sales, the RIAA and the threat of labels soaking up profits, Folds has done something pretty damn ingenious--he's beaten the system. As new material finishes, out it goes in EP form, available in physical form direct from the website or in download form exclusively on ITunes and Sony Music downloads.
For now, there will be three of these EPs with possibly more to come. The first, Speed Graphic, is a five-song gem made up of one Cure cover, new originals and, yes, a reborn Ben Folds Five tune. All of the songs are exceptional and Folds is in top form. Hell, if he's gonna do something this revolutionary, he might as well be great at it.
The next EP is slated for release this month and from the songs he played at the recent show at Walnut Creek, it looks to be grand.
At the end of this year, the tracks from the EPs will be culled into a major label LP released and slipped under the door, and who will care? Folds will probably have his kid Crayola an album cover, and when Best Buy opens quietly on that wintry Tuesday, Folds fans everywhere will be rejoicing in dream form, already cradling three shimmering EPs like teddy bears.
Sham on.
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