The Sunday Listen: 'Narcolepsy' by Ben Folds Five
It’s been short while since I shared any rock or pop on this blog, so this week’s Sunday Listen takes a look at ‘Narcolepsy’ by Ben Folds Five, a tune I transcribed earlier this week for one of my students, Naomi.
For the uninitiated, Ben Folds and his confusing titled trio, ‘Ben Folds Five’ (piano + bass+ drums), were sort of the Elton John of the late 90s, early 00s, which is when I started to really get into music for the first time.
‘Narcolepsy’, the album opener from their third album, The Unauthorised Biograaphy of Reinhold Messner, somewhat flouted the precedents set by their previous records (normally rumbunctious bluesy piano stomps, like ‘Jackson Cannary’ or ‘One Angry Dwarf and 200 Hundred Solemn Faces’, that carried the flavour of their barnstorming, jumping-on-the-piano live-like-its-on-fire performances).
Instead, what we get here is a very straightforward C major melody in duple time, until the doors blow open, the strings come in, and we’re treated to a proggy epic that merges the band's usual piano rock with classical orchestration.
‘Narcolepsy’ errs closer to chamber-pop than anything else the group ever recorded and it’s as grand a statement of purpose as any track one, announcing that the band you’ve grown to know is morphing into something bigger and weirder. Ostensibly the song is about depression, mentally shutting down when faced with strong emotions, and that strange dislocating sense of ‘otherness’ that can bring with it.
I particularly like the huge shift into the madcap, full on rock musical middle section, and the climactic refrain which finds Folds shouting “Save me/ Wake me up!” as the track falls apart around him. Even then, it’s not over quite over yet…
The rest of the album is full of other such strange delights, showcasing some of the most interesting an intricate piano work in the Ben Folds catalogue, including album highlight, ‘Army’, one of the first pop tunes I ever learned to play on the piano when I was about 13.
On such a downcast day, it’s been a such a consolation to revisit all these old friends again.
Have a great week!
Will