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Jun 12, 2023Ben Folds has made a welcome return to the world of popular music with What Matters Most. While some of his contemporaries are content to peddle nostalgia, Folds continues to stretch out and try new styles for size. Fortunately for us, they all seem to fit him perfectly.
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MojoMay 31, 2023What Matters Most is near faultless; a whole semester of song-craft in 40 minutes. [Jul 2023, p.90]
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Jun 16, 2023It’s a feeling of abject determination that makes this album different from many of Folds’ earlier endeavors, and, as a result, a somewhat more earnest offering as well. In that sense, What Matters Most reflects all its name intends to claim.
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Jun 2, 2023While this mix of vulnerability, anxiety, and resentment can feel uneven, Folds' melodies are engaging as ever, and he finds balance again on highlights like "Moments" (featuring Tall Heights) and the pandemic-isolation-themed "Winslow Gardens."
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May 31, 2023Folds is past aiming for radio airplay and mass appeal and focused more on creating experimental songs that appeal to his creativity. And sometimes those moments of inspiration take him back to the beginning and sound a lot like he did when he first started out.
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May 31, 2023There’s no big anthem like Landed, and sometimes you do yearn to hear Folds properly hammering his piano like in his early solo days or during his time with Ben Folds Five.
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Jun 14, 2023What Matters Most ends up being a mixed bag. Musically, this is a strong record. .... As much as I like Ben Folds, though, hearing him come back with a new pair of songs about women who are borderline crazy is disheartening, and it casts a pall over the rest of the album. Some longtime fans might not have that same visceral reaction, and they’ll probably enjoy What Matters Most more than I did.
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May 31, 2023Unfortunately, the song [“Clouds with Ellipses”], like so much of What Matters Most, lacks the snark and self-aggrandizing pity that made the singer-songwriter’s early albums, like Rockin’ the Suburbs, so relatable.
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Jun 5, 2023Despite its long gestation period and pristine production, it sounds as though no one believes in What Matters Most less than Folds himself, and this bleeds through every single vocal performance and instrumental arrangement on the record.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 5 out of 5
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Mixed: 0 out of 5
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Negative: 0 out of 5
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Jul 19, 2023
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Jun 3, 2023