Epic Records releases Ben Folds Five’s second album, Whatever And Ever Amen, featuring the single “Brick”. 
This was my introduction to Ben Folds Five and reaffirmed my faith that the 90s could actually produce potentially classic pop music. By now, it is best known for the deceptively jaunty ballad “Brick”, a completely atypical Ben Folds Five tune in every sense (the gentle march rhythm, the bowed bass), but there are much better songs here. The album kicks off with the cathartically rip-roaring “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces”, another hysterically funny/angry tune. Also included are “Battle Of Who Could Care Less”, the album’s first single (shunned by many stations due to that pesky F word), which bears more than a passing resemblance to Joe Jackson’s style, the harrowing ballad “Evaporated”, and my personal favorite Ben 
Folds Five tune, the jazzy “Steven’s Last Night In Town”, a song which begs for a video with a goofy Busby Berkeley production number.
- One Angry Dwarf And 200 Solemn Faces (3:52)
- Fair (5:56)
- Brick (4:43)
- Song For The Dumped (3:40)
- Selfless, Cold And Composed (6:10)
- Kate (3:14)
- Smoke (4:52)
- Cigarette (1:38)
- Steven’s Last Night In Town (3:28)
- The Battle Of Who Could Care Less (3:16)
- Missing The War (4:20)
- Evaporated (5:41)
Released by: Epic/Sony
Release date: 1997
Total running time: 50:52
1997 music review by Earl Green