The Sound of the Life of the Mind
- Ben Folds Five
- Band Name: Ben Folds Five
- Record Label: ImaVeePee Records
- Release Date: Sep 18, 2012
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Sep 18, 201275Mind sounds exactly what a mature Ben Folds Five record should sound like: hard-won wisdom and withering observations with an unabashedly sentimental core.
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Sep 28, 201270Folds stays true to his career-long mission to whisk up a melting pot of musical styles. [Nov 2012, p.73]
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Sep 24, 201270This is a solid, if unspectacular, comeback and fans will be crossing their fingers that The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind is a new beginning, rather than a one-off cash-in.
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Sep 20, 201270The freewheeling Ben Folds Five still do the best imitation of themselves.
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Sep 18, 201270Very little here could be accused of being twee; Folds sounds invigorated to have a rock band behind him again, making him play harder, sing harder, be harder.
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Sep 18, 201270Only "Do It Anyway" and the title track sound at all like amenable pandering. All the rest feels totally organic.
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Sep 18, 201270Sarcastic, sweet, subversive, geeky, and awkward are hard vibes to juggle, but Folds, Sledge, and Jessee manage more times than not to keep all of the pins in the air, which after more than a decade apart, is pretty remarkable.
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Sep 18, 201270Unfortunately, The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind loses a little steam after that outstanding opening trifecta, either when Folds leans too heavily on his flashy lyricism or downplays his band's instrumental strengths.
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Sep 18, 201260There's nothing about Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee's performance on Life that will make you realize you're listening to Ben Folds Five. Still, a few songs are gems. [Oct 2012, p.84]
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Sep 18, 201260Sadly, the album at large is plagued by many of the things which have seeped into Folds' sound over the last ten years: the seriousness, the restraint, and the descent into middle age.
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Sep 18, 201260The good news is that one of the most consistently entertaining pop-rock bands of the 1990s is back together. The bad news is that the album they've released to mark their comeback isn't quite a classic.
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Dec 4, 201250We still find this trio a little yawn-worthy. [No. 93, p.55]
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Sep 21, 201250There's a pall of maturity over The Sound of the Life of the Mind that both unifies and wrecks it. It rejects, if only halfheartedly, the nerdy, masculine piss that once made the band such guilty fun.
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Nov 30, 201245Way too easygoing and disappointingly light on rockers. [Oct/Nov 2012, p.128]
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Oct 23, 201240In the end, it's all a bit too sensible. [Nov 2012, p.95]
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Sep 20, 201235Even as Sledge and Jessee work to add some rough edges to the music, their frontman keeps his distance on Sound of the Life of the Mind, as though he can't quite get outside his own mind. As a result, the album sounds barely able to polarize, like Folds is rockin' the suburbs gently to sleep.