Ben Folds joined actor Justin Long on his podcast this week, and revealed that his most recent album went through a major last minute change.
LISTEN NOW : Ben Folds on Life is Short with Justin Long Podcast
Ben Folds has been a staple on the soft alternative and indie songwriter scene since the 90s, but has been rather elusive recently. He’s extended his work into making soundtracks, musicals, and working with symphonies, but hasn’t created a new album for eight years. That is, until his fifth studio album, What Matters Most, was released earlier this month.
“Why call the album What Matters Most? I'm always curious how people name albums,” podcast host Justin Long asked early on in the episode. “I think I first go to what might be in the album lyrically, you know?” the fifty-six year old singer songwriter responded. “That's pretty obvious. ‘Cause there's so many nuggets you got to work with. I mean, you've been lyric-ing for a long time and so you've got a lot of stuff to work with.”
But as it turns out, the process to kick off his latest album wasn’t so obvious, as he actually switched titles at the last minute. “In this case, I thought that the album was called, But Wait, There's More,” Folds explained. “Until finally there were two factions of the album, one slightly more cynical and one slightly more about heart, and I could always feel that tug.”
And while Folds felt that “tug” between the two sides of his album, he first chose to name the album after the more pessimistic song, "But Wait There’s More.” He equated being cynical and pessimistic to being defensive, as if you’re “covering yourself” or “blocking” from vulnerability. “When it was But Wait, There's More I felt safer.” Folds continued, “But then I chose artwork that was really heartfelt and suddenly I realized, why did I choose that artwork? Cause I really feel that it's not about Wait, There's More, it's What Matters Most.”
“What Matters Most,” which would become the album’s titular song, is a curious piece where the singer longs to find meaning and hope despite hardships. Singing lines like, “A true friend is / Someone who, when you are with them / You know what matters most” and “But in these days of overwhelming change / I just wanna know what I want / Tell me what matters most?” Folds searches for the light at the end of the tunnel, whereas his song “Wait, There’s More” seems to believe no light even exists. “Wait” was meant to express the 2020 feeling when things somehow manage to get worse. “It's like, we just keep doing this to ourselves!” he joked. “And I sort of felt that was the way I could relate to everyone else. And then as I got into it, it became more about, alright, we know that, so What Matters Most?”
Ultimately battling hope with pessimism, Folds summarized that, “The album is soaked in the pandemic. And some of it is obvious and some of it is not as obvious.” Ben Fold’s album What Matters Most is available now, and you can listen to the full podcast sit-down on the free Audacy app.
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