Ben Folds

Ben Folds will release his new album What Matters Most on June 2nd via New West Records. The 10-song set was produced by Joe Pisapia (K.D. Lang, Guster) in Nashville. What Matters Most is Folds’ first studio album since his collaboration in 2015 with the string ensemble yMusic.

The collection is a bold, timely, cinematic work. It is one that examines the tragic and the absurd in equal measures as it reckons with hope and despair, gratitude and loss, identity and perspective. The songs are bittersweet, hilarious at times, yet often laced with a quiet sense of longing and dread. Taken as a whole, the result is an undeniably joyful album that refuses to succumb to the weight of the world around it, an ecstatic reminder of all the beauty and promise hiding in plain sight for anyone willing (and present enough) to recognize their moments as they arrive. 

Folds says, “There’s a lifetime of craft and experience all focused into this one record. Sonically, lyrically, emotionally, I don’t think it’s an album I could have made at any other point in my career.”

Folds shared the video for the single “Exhausting Lover” which was directed by the actor and comedian, Derek Waters of Drunk History fame. The video depicts an outrageous staged musical directed by Folds and based on the song’s lyrics. Derek Waters said, “I always have and always will love Ben Folds. But now I have a deeper appreciation for him knowing we shared similar experiences in a motel 6 with a hot wheels track and dancers dressed as animals.” Folds added, “This was my first foray into musical theater, and Derek’s, too. We both vow to actually go see a musical now.” 

Folds also previously shared the first new music from What Matters Most with the album highlight “Winslow Gardens,” an off-kilter pop song about losing track of the passing time while isolating with a loved one.  

“I come from the vinyl era, and this perhaps more than any record I’ve made is a true album,” says Folds. “There’s a very specific sequence and arc to each side, all building up to this almost surreal positive finale, and that structure was really important to me.” He adds, “More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful,” says Folds. “I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.” 

Before going solo, Ben Folds Five released four albums beginning with a self-titled album in 1995, Whatever And Ever Amen (1997), The Unauthorized Biography Of Reinhold Messner (1999), The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind (2012). The band’s breakout Alternative single was “Brick” in 1997. 

Ben Folds has announced a round of tour dates in support of his newest release, What Matters Most. Find the tour dates here.

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