reinhold messner renaissance
i've been falling and enjoying going down a big ben folds five hole since the ride, since i realized truly amongst strangers/friends how much this band really means to me and to all of us. the depth of this hole i've been falling down is a loooong way down. i've watched every single early youtube interview i can find and all the reunion interviews as well. read all the published articles and didn't like some of them! i'm almost done listening to ben folds' memoir being read by ben himself. i bought a ticket to his paper airplane tour show in Salem in september. i'm currently going through it with the ben folds five.
so i originally excluded this album for the bike ride because when i was a teenager on the magical armchair listserv we all had a lot of mixed reviews about it. it was their breakup album too so i just always kind of had a bad taste about it - also it was just soooo out there from their other stuff. i remember the first listen i was like whoa, what? i really tired to like the songs i spent a lot of time listening to it and even memorizing some lyrics, as i listen now and find out i still know them. listening at 43 as opposed to 18 is something i can't really explain with words except my distaste of it is now somewhat glaringly embarrassing. but you know what, i got there. i get it now. and i'll celebrate that realization with another listen.
thank you ben folds five for continuously enrichening this music lover with your unparalleled genius. it literally never grows old, it just growwwwwsssssssssss