What Are You Listening To?

[CRAZY-HORSE]

BEN FOLDS "the best imitation of myself-a retrospective" cd,2011.

disc #1.

North Carolina born Folds released his first album with the Ben Folds Five back in 1996 and since then has released ten studio albums, and several live sets.
he has never bothered the UK/US charts very much, scoring several minor placings in both the albums and singles charts...his highest placing single in the US was "landed" reaching a peak of #77 there,but has had several top 20 albums there, he has never cracked the top 30 in the UK with any release...but here in Australia he has had numerous top 20 albums and a couple of top 10 hits in "brick" and "rockin the suburbs"...his success here with albums and live performances probably had something to do with his decision to move here around six or seven years ago.
his music is primarily piano based alternative pop, whilst some songs are serious in nature, others are quite satirical and sarcastic...add to that the odd bit of explicit language and you have an artist who does not get much radio play,thus the reason why he just doesnt sell records IMO.
i dont own any other BF albums but have enjoyed listening to him perform on TV over the last three decades...having no other albums i thought this would be a good introduction to his music as it is spread over three discs, the first(this one) contains his singles, the second contains 21 live tracks, and the third contains 22 b-sides/rarities, so for the price of a single disc you get 61 career spanning tracks in this anthology
i have only played the disc posted here and my only concern with it is that for a 'best of' disc it doesnt score as high as it probably should...makes me also think that if this best of set rates very average....just how bad is the rest of not only this album but his studio albums also!

I LIKE THIS ALBUM

worst track: gracie
best track: brick

tracks:

1. brick ***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wt5EHAqhR1c&ob=av2e vevo video
2. annie watts *
3. philosophy **
Ben Folds Five - Philosophy (Live on Jools Holland) - YouTube live
4. underground **
Underground (Live) by Ben Folds Five - YouTube live
5. landed *
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vPygzPSg8M&ob=av2e audio
6. one angry dwarf & 200 solemn faces **
One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces Ben Folds Five Live - YouTube live
7. dont change your plans **
8. the luckiest **
9. smoke **
10.rockin the suburbs **
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34u_3Z9_LUw&ob=av2e vevo video
11.kate **
12. gracie *
13.still fighting it **
14.you dont know me (featuring Regina Spector) ***
Ben Folds & Regina Spektor - You Don't Know Me (Rehearsal for Conan O'Brien) - YouTube live
15.theres always someone cooler than you ***
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxkM_cnjFfw audio
16.still *
17.from above **
18.house **

3s=3
2s=11
1s=4

rating: 1.9