Whatever and Ever Amen

Whatever and Ever Amen
Whatever and Ever Amen
Studio album by Ben Folds Five
Released March 18, 1997
Recorded September–October 1996, Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Genre Alternative rock
Length 49:20
Label 550
Producer Ben Folds, Caleb Southern
Ben Folds Five chronology
Ben Folds Five
(1995)
Whatever and Ever Amen
(1997)
Naked Baby Photos
(1998)
Alternative cover
Cover for remastered version (2005)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4/5 stars [1]
Robert Christgau (1 star Honorable Mention [2]
Pitchfork Media 7.6/10 [3]
Rolling Stone 3.5/5 stars [4]

Whatever and Ever Amen is the second album by Ben Folds Five, released in 1997. A remaster was made available on March 22, 2005. All of the extra tracks had been previously released (as b-sides, soundtrack contributions, etc.) except for a cover of the Buggles song "Video Killed the Radio Star", which is a staple of Ben Folds Five's live show.

Contents

Album recording

The entire album was recorded in a house Ben Folds rented in Chapel Hill. Due to this fact, the album has several lo-fi occurrences. A phone ring can be heard at approximately 2:56 in "Steven's Last Night in Town;" Ben Folds has said the ring was a friend calling from Minnesota, but it came at such a perfect timing, the band decided to leave it in the song. Robert can be heard laughing slightly after it rings as well. Crickets can also be heard in the background of "Cigarette."

The track "Steven's Last Night in Town" was written about Ben Folds' friend Stephen Short, a Grammy-Award winning record producer and manager.[citation needed]

The album's title comes from a line in the song "Battle of Who Could Care Less." Helped by a comedic video directed by Norwood Cheek, "Battle of Who Could Care Less" helped the band break through in the UK in early 1997.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Ben Folds except where noted. 

Original release
No. Title Lyrics Length
1. "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces"     3:52
2. "Fair"     5:55
3. "Brick"   Folds, Darren Jessee 4:43
4. "Song for the Dumped"   Folds, Jessee 3:52
5. "Selfless, Cold, and Composed"     6:10
6. "Kate"   Folds, Jessee, Anna Goodman 3:14
7. "Smoke"     4:52
8. "Cigarette"     1:38
9. "Steven's Last Night in Town"     3:27
10. "Battle of Who Could Care Less"     3:16
11. "Missing the War"     4:19
12. "Evaporated"     4:28
Bonus tracks on remastered version
No. Title Length
13. "Video Killed the Radio Star" (cover of The Buggles) 3:40
14. "For All the Pretty People"   3:21
15. "Mitchell Lane"   3:40
16. "Theme From "Dr. Pyser"" (Brendan O'Brien Studio version) 4:28
17. "Air"   3:20
18. "She Don't Use Jelly" (Lounge-A-Palooza version; cover of The Flaming Lips) 4:11
19. "Song for the Dumped (Japanese version) (金返せ Kane Kaese?)"   5:03

Personnel

The band

Additional musicians

Production

Chart positions

Year Country Chart Position Weeks
1997 Japan Oricon Weekly Albums Chart (top 100) 6 8
United Kingdom UK Albums Chart 30 3
United States Billboard 200 42
1998 Australia ARIA Albums Chart (top 50) 9 32

Singles

Year Single Country Provider Chart Position
1997 "Battle of Who Could Care Less" United States Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 22
United Kingdom BPI UK Singles Chart 26
"Kate" 39
"Brick" United States Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 6
1998 Adult Top 40 11
Top 40 Mainstream 17
Australia ARIA ARIA Charts 13
"Song for the Dumped" United States Billboard Modern Rock Tracks 23

Track notes

The lyrics for "Cigarette" were inspired by a newspaper article about a man who sought a divorce from his wife after finding out she had a brain tumour, on the basis that she was not the same person he had married.[citation needed] The "sequel" track, "Fred Jones Part Two", is on Folds' first solo album, Rockin' the Suburbs.

The first track ("One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces") has been covered and recorded by singer-songwriter VanVelzen, and also by pop rock band De Poema's (in a translated version, with the title changed to "Groot en Belangrijk"; "Big and Important"), both Dutch acts.

Nick Hornby writes one of his essays in the book 31 Songs about "Smoke".

References

See also


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