{"id":633931,"date":"2026-08-12T22:14:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:14:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633931\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T22:14:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T22:14:14","slug":"ben-folds-shares-philosophy-shelved-first-attempt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/633931\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben Folds Shares \u2018Philosophy (Shelved First Attempt)\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ben Folds<\/strong><\/a> has unveiled \u201cPhilosophy (Shelved First Attempt),\u201d which will be included on the 30th anniversary release of his band\u2019s debut LP, Ben Folds Five.<\/p>\n

Ben Folds Five (30th Anniversary) will be released on September 4 via Capitol\/UMe on 2CD and 2LP on 180-gram black vinyl. Additionally, the remaster of the original album and the famed \u201cShelved First Attempt\u201d will be available to stream and download.<\/p>\n

The original LP by Folds\u2019 classic trio has been remastered and will be featured alongside the long-sought-after \u201cShelved First Attempt\u201d for the LP, which was just recently rediscovered on digital audio tape by Folds.<\/p>\n

The \u201cShelved\u201d album was produced by Dave \u201cStiff\u201d Johnson and includes early, alternate versions of seven tracks from the album. It also includes an early version of \u201cEvaporated,\u201d which would be re-recorded for the band\u2019s 1997 sophomore album, Whatever And Ever Amen. Also included are three outtakes: \u201cEmaline,\u201d \u201cDick Holster,\u201d and \u201cEddie Walker.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Folds explained the history of this era in the liner notes. He wrote: \u201cHere\u2019s my 59-year-old self\u2019s take on the album we made when I was 28: Overall, it\u2019s good! It\u2019s NOT the kind of record you\u2019d hear produced these days. It\u2019s pretty rough and tumble, mostly in a good way. And it\u2019s emphatically unique. It\u2019s from an era when you could still identify a band by the instrumentalists, before you\u2019d even hear the vocalist. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s been a thing since computers allowed us to get things just right.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Regarding the \u201cShelved First Attempt,\u201d Folds explained: \u201cThe budget from Caroline Records, as I recall, was about $14k, all-in. We spent all of that in a proper three-week session in Philadelphia with a proper producer who had a few hits under his belt and who gave us a great deal. This version of the album was shelved and never saw the light of day. We had taken the time we needed and the advice of the very competent producer, but it resulted in an album that didn\u2019t feel like us. I only recently happened to have found a cassette of this shelved album. It\u2019s not bad, though I recall it being hideous\u2026It\u2019s just not crazy like the album we all know.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Shop Ben Folds Five\u2019s music on vinyl and CD here.<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ben Folds has unveiled \u201cPhilosophy (Shelved First Attempt),\u201d which will be included on the 30th anniversary release of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[264],"tags":[8313,268008,18,117,47519,19,17,337,268009],"class_list":["post-633931","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-alternative","tag-ben-folds","tag-eire","tag-entertainment","tag-homepage-featured","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-philosophy-shelved-first-attempt"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117084845718834828","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}