Album Review: Ben Folds Five - The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind

To say that the new tracks from this trio that teased fans on last year's The Best Imitation Of Myself: A Retrospectivie showed promise is an understatement – the string-laden Stumblin' Home Winter Blues in particular had a beautiful high-chin fragility – and the promise has been fulfilled on album number four.

As is the pleasure of just about any release with Folds' touch on it, his comfort in the studio shines through. There are small flourishes and embellishments, near-negligible when picked apart, that make the songs, and would only occur to those who are so at home, so accomplished and in their element in a recording environment.

The return of the Ben Folds Five's enviable harmonies could not have been any stronger – Michael Praytor, Five Years Later is melancholy pop genius, and the coral vocal arrangements that lead into the juvenile joy of Draw A Crowd are brief but beautiful. On Draw A Crowd, Folds sings “I only wanted to be Stevie Wonder, but I got to settle for this vanilla thunder”, and resigned as the statement may sound, he's in fine form here – and once again paired with Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee, the trio are as playfully talented and impressively inventive as ever in their odd realm of piano pop. The 13-year gap between albums is forgotten with the fuzzed-out bass-driven Erase Me, and any further remnants of ill-feeling towards the band for taking so damn long are washed away with the light raindrop of keys that anchors Hold That Thought.