Ben Folds continues to deliver, decades after the legendary singer/songwriter/piano player/composer made his debut.
The North Carolina native will drop What Matters Most, his fifth solo album, on June 2, 2023. We’ve already heard some of the tracks, including the gorgeous Winslow Gardens and a hilarious tale of a tryst gone wrong in Exhausting Lover. So far, it’s setting up to be an amazing record.
With Folds’ new album coming, it’s a perfect time to look back at his career and rank his best songs, both solo and with Ben Folds Five. Although we could have gone MUCH higher given how prolific he is, we settled on the 30 best songs in his career.
Here they are, ranked:
30
Gone
It’s just an earworm, like so many of his songs. I have no other thoughts.
29
Protection
A fantastic song written by Folds and ex-wife Anna Goodman — who co-wrote a few more of the songs on the list! — that appears on the Speed Graphic EP. It’s got that signature combo of a melodic tune with some raw emotions in the lyrics, and it’s so good.
28
Philosophy
Simple but effective, especially these lines:
I see that there is evilAnd I know that there is goodAnd the in-betweens, I never understood
27
Emaline
I prefer to hear this lovely tune on the piano rather than the guitar-heavy version on Naked Baby Photos. It’s a song about someone who’s expensive, but he’s not talking about money.
26
Jane
The phrase “criminally underrated” is used way too much, but I’m using it for The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner. This cut off the album isn’t the last one you’ll see.
25
Steven's Last Night in Town
The jazzy tale of the guy who just won’t leave and go back home.
24
Uncle Walter
Like many of Folds’ songs, this one paints such a vivid picture.
23
Time
Time takes time, you know? What a brilliantly expressed sentiment. Also, did you know that’s “Weird” Al Yankovic on the background vocals? Now you do.
22
Song For the Dumped
A top-10 breakup song.
21
Kate
You can see Kate in your mind’s eye with the portrait painted here, right?
20
Jackson Cannery
STOP THE BUS!
19
You Don't Know Me
The duet with Regina Spektor gets really deep.
18
Not the Same
Am I biased because he gets the audience at his concerts to sing the background vocals? Maybe. But I love this song that drips with acid.
17
Annie Waits
The bridge particularly gets me.
16
Don't Change Your Plans
Maybe it’s the hook, or it’s the chorus. But it’s a heck of a song.
15
Battle of Who Could Care Less
Could there be a better slacker anthem for the 1990s? I think not.
14
Fred Jones, Pt. 2
I was recently listening to his songs for this post in my car, and this one came up … and I started weeping. It’s not just because it’s the tale of a journalist losing his job.
13
Alice Childress
That line — “an arranged marriage is not so good” — always gets me. It’s not the deepest of lyrics in the song, but it sums it all up.
12
Army
So singable, so satisfying to scream “GOD PLEASE SPARE ME MORE REJECTION!”
11
Evaporated
That three-note movement with the same chord behind it is all this song needs, but then Folds’ voice comes in.
10
Zak and Sara
A song I have tried to dissect a thousand times, but I’ve let go and enjoyed it, singing “La da daaaaaaa la da daaaaaaaaa la da daaaaaaaaaa” with the rest of his fans.
9
Best Imitation of Myself
It might be among his strongest lyrics, and you can count Stephen Colbert among those who could agree:
When I first heard the song just a few years ago, I just thought he had written it for me. But then when I listened to it more, I thought it’s just a beautiful expression of how we are toward each other as people. We don’t think that we are sufficient for each other – that no one wants to know the real me or the whole me. I just want to give you the part of me that I think you expect to see from me. And almost as if that little part of me is more than the whole of me because I don’t want to give you any of the poison.
8
The Luckiest
It’s just gorgeous from beginning to end.
7
Brick
An honest, unflinching portrayal, but it’s always heartbreaking to listen to, which we all did dozens of times when it was released.
6
Still Fighting It
When I became a dad, this song hit me harder than I expected. It does hurt to grow up.
5
Underground
The combination of the sarcastic jazziness and the joy of being underground with all your friends in all black, who have mohawks and nose rings … it’s just so fun.
4
Landed
There’s some hope in this song, masked in a post-relationship struggle:
Down comes the reign of the telephone czar,
it’s OK to call, and I will answer for myself.
3
Selfless, Cold and Composed
I can’t think of another song that’s about a fight that cuts so close to the bone.
2
Boxing
A waltz about Muhammad Ali and Howard Cosell so brilliant and sad that Bette Midler recognized how good it was and recorded it.
1
One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces
I remember opening up the CD (sigh) of Whatever and Ever Amen and putting it on. And the opening piano notes of this song came in, followed by the ear-opening cracks of Darren Jessee’s drums and Robert Sledge’s fuzzy bass. It was like a 4-by-4 had nailed me in the head. And then here comes Folds, singing with so much fire about a character who used to get beat up after class, but who’s “big and important” now and sneering about “look who’s telling who what to do.” Plus, that piano solo is AWESOME, proof that you could be punk and play the keys.
There might be better lyrics from Folds. There are better melodies and hooks. Maybe there’s bias for my teenage self who heard this and knew I was a Ben Folds fan for life.
But, no. This is his best song.
