Artist: Ben Folds

Title: Ben Folds Presents: University A Capella

Label: Epic

Genre: Rock/Pop

Rating: 9/10

If you have watched The Office over the past few years, you are accustomed to Andy Bernard reminding everyone that he went to Cornell and he was the lead singer in the collegiate a capella group Here Comes Treble. There are times when he serenades his fellow workers, but mostly they are annoyed by his voice. Rest assured, there is no Andy Bernard here. These sixteen tracks were handpicked by Ben himself to represent his catalog and there are even two songs on which he lends his own voice to the remake.

Traveling the country with nothing more than six area mics, Ben, traveling with his wife Fleur and producer Joe Costa, did his best to capture the raw power of the human voice at its best-without any instruments. No editing or mixing was done on the tracks as Folds let the voices speak for themselves. The sounds that emanated during these short sessions are explosive. Saying they are impressive is a massive understatement. Things may seem easy when you have good source material, but these groups of college students from Athens, Georgia to Athens, Ohio excel at the art of harmony. Ben himself considers this collection to be his “greatest hits” because he did not want, “someone collecting my masters and slapping on a photo of me leaning against a piano.”

As a “greatest hits” collection, University A Capella sums up the career of Ben Folds. These are songwriter songs being interpreted by the voices of groups that for over a hundred years now have dissected lyrics into ten part harmony. The words speak for themselves. There is not even the need for Ben’s Baldwin piano to hear these songs at their best.

See our review of Ben Fold's last album Way To Normal here.

www.benfolds.com