#and i think i have a vinyl preordered???? am can never remember what other parts have bought

[inniave]

after surgery i'm buying myself pentiment goddamnit

[recordoftheday]

I preordered this ages ago because I adore this record so when I heard it was getting a vinyl rerelease I decided to jump on it.  Basically because getting stuff from the 90's is a nightmare and even reissues seem to be hard to find because this hobby is full of aging Gen Xers.  Plus I had a promo code for this shop and well... I forgot about it until there was a knock on my door a half an hour ago.  I opened it and this was just sitting there.  Happy Day.

This is my favorite work Ben Folds has ever done even though I imagine other things are more popular.  I could be wrong, I am not well versed in Ben Folds fandom because it must exist but it is a thing I am not aware of.  I also own Whatever and Ever Amen because I quite like that album but have never felt a need for any of his solo stuff.  I would probably get their first album if I ever saw it but it isn't a burning need really.  This of course was their last record until 2012 rolled around and my generation of indie rockers turned major label acts suddenly became nostalgia act.  It's funny, I remember the anger directed at Baby Boomers who couldn't let go of the culture and age gracefully yet Superchuck comes out with a new album and it's like, "This is different cause this is good".  I remember kind of liking the new Bend Folds Five back when it came out but I probably haven't listened to it in 5 years or so. I think mainly it's because this was a pretty perfect bookend.  I couldn't have told you this was a breakup album when it came out but when the band broke up a year later it suddenly felt right because that's where this record was headed.  I am uncertain if the band knew it when they made it but they made a concept album that works to sketch a character who is a specific type of douche bag who feels very specific to my generation, a guy I had a part of in me as did many of my friends.  Now, it starts with the title as Reinhold Messner was the first man to climb mount Everest without oxygen but the band didn't know that, he was just a name on a fake ID that used to be used, so you already get into the sort of solipsism that a person is so focused on themselves they are unaware of the larger world.  Everything that exists in the world doesn't really exist outside them but as a part of them.  Facts, names, art, these are things that exist to show how interesting and special they are, they do not exist on their own, they are part of the story of this persons epic that is their life as a special snowflake. Every one of these songs is about the same kind of guy really, the sort of guy who sees himself as a tortured intellectual, who is alone in his special pain that exists because he is so special and profound and perhaps his real struggle is that the world is just not special enough to contain or satisfying.  This sort of naval gazing bullshit Hamlet saw a lot of popularity into the 90's in indie films and music and TV until it peaked with Garden State, where we get the ultimate in self absorbed passive aggressive assholes who can be a shit head to everyone because their pain is so profound. The pain that comes from not quite being thrilled with the world.  You know, vaguely bored and that's so miserable.  You can here it here in songs that very well capture Ben Folds' brand of clever human as people sing soft love songs that are dripping with an under current of passive aggressive anger.  There is Don't Change Your Plans, which is thoroughly passive aggressive and basically seems to make some unknown woman feel bad for wanting more in her life but you know, don't change those plans because he can't commit because he's so profound. There is Your Redneck past which is about changing things about yourself that are don't fit the special, sensitive intellectual parts of you, suppressing them to fit in with all the other people like you so you can seem special.  I guess this could sound like I am being critical but I am not, these are all fantastic.  Besides being good songs they paint a picture and art doesn't always have to paint something pleasant to look at.  In this case it really does show a specific type that I am sure still exists but I am mostly too old to run into anymore.  And who seems to have largely lost his place in pop culture save for a few Indie Movies about some adult stuck in perpetual adolescence and how they are struggling because they just won't grow the fuck up.  I don't know what people thought of this record at the time or now but I love it.  I still think it is a powerful work but like all of my favorite work of the band it is an excellent examination of just what my generation was like at the time.