Ben Folds Five Reunite, Record New Songs for October Retrospective

As tongue-in-cheek piano/pop prankster Ben Folds reunites with his "Five" members Robert Sledge and Darren Jessee for a new studio album for 2012, a new Folds retrospective with both past hits and rarities and three new tracks with the band: The Best Imitation of Myself is set to arrive October 11 via Sony Legacy. The retrospective is available as a single disc "best of" collection (with new single "House") or an expansive three-CD box set packed with two additional new songs, live tracks, remixes, collaborations and previously unreleased studio demos and rarities.

“This is the album I will submit for the next Voyager to be launched into space. It’s my best shot at an honest assessment of where I was in each period of my career. In the end we tried to put together a collection of the unrepeatable, each recording hopefully representing a moment that was somehow otherwise beyond my ability.”

Disc 1: Greatest Hits

1. Brick (Radio Mix) – Ben Folds Five
2. Annie Waits – Ben Folds
3. Philosophy – Ben Folds Five
4. Underground – Ben Folds Five
5. Landed (Strings Version) – Ben Folds
6. One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces – Ben Folds Five
7. Don’t Change Your Plans – Ben Folds Five
8. The Luckiest – Ben Folds
9. Smoke – Ben Folds with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra
10. Rockin’ the Suburbs – Ben Folds
11. Kate – Ben Folds Five
12. Gracie – Ben Folds
13. Still Fighting It (Extended Version) – Ben Folds
14. You Don’t Know Me – Ben Folds featuring Regina Spektor
15. There’s Always Someone Cooler Than You – Ben Folds
16. Still – Ben Folds
17. From Above – Ben Folds
18. House – Ben Folds Five

Disc 2: Live material

1. Julianne – Ben Folds Five
2. Video (Recorded at Studion in Stockholm, Sweden on March 12, 1997)
3. Song for the Dumped (Recorded for Hard Rock Café Live television program on June 12, 1998)
4. Missing the War – Ben Folds Five (Recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London, UK on December 14, 1999)
5. Mess – Ben Folds Five (Recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London, UK on December 14, 1999)
6. Magic – Ben Folds Five (Recorded at Royal Albert Hall in London, UK on December 14, 1999)
7. Selfless, Cold and Composed (Recorded at Bowery Ballroom in New York, NY on December 9, 2001)
8. Zak and Sara (Recorded at Roseland Ballroom in New York, NY on June 13, 2002)
9. Girl (Recorded at Roseland Ballroom in New York, NY on June 13, 2002)
10. Just Pretend – The Bens (Recorded at Palais Theatre in Melbourne, Australia on March 24, 2003)
11. Fred Jones Part 2 – Ben Folds with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra (Recorded at Kings Park in Perth, Australia on March 12 & 13 2005)
12. Careless Whisper – Ben Folds with Rufus Wainwright (Recorded at Mountain Winery in Saratoga, CA on August 24, 2005)
13. All U Can Eat (Recorded at Ben’s Studio in Nashville, TN on October 24, 2006)
14. Long Tall Texan (Recorded at the Warehouse in Houston, TX on October 24, 2008)
15. Army – Ben Folds Five (Recorded at UNC Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill on September 18, 2008 for the MySpace “Front to Back” series)
16. Battle of Who Could Care Less – Ben Folds Five (Recorded at UNC Memorial Hall, Chapel Hill on September 18, 2008 for the MySpace “Front to Back” series)
17. Kylie from Connecticut (Recorded at the State Theatre, Detroit, MI on October 9, 2008)
18. Effington (Recorded at Ax Hall, Seoul, South Korea on June 9, 2011)
19. Picture Window (Recorded at HMV Hammersmith Apollo in London, UK on February 20, 2011)
20. Sentimental Guy (Recorded at Diamond Hall in Nagoya, Japan on June 7, 2011)
21. Not the Same (Recorded at A.E.C. Theatre in Adelaide, Australia on May 22, 2011)

Disc 3: Studio Rarities

1. Unrelated (Unfinished Song Demo, 1996)
2. Best Imitation of Myself (Demo, 1991)
3. Rocky (4-Track Home Demo, 1993)
4. Boxing (Demo, 1993)
5. Julianne – Ben Folds Five (Unreleased First Album, 1994)
6. Evaporated – Ben Folds Five (Unreleased First Album, 1994)
7. Alice Childress
8. Barrytown – Ben Folds Five
9. Amelia Bright – Ben Folds Five (Mitch Easter sessions, 2000)
10. Tell Me What I Did – Ben Folds Five (New track, 2011)
11. Rock Star (Demo, 2oo0)
12. Losing Lisa (Demo, 2000)
13. Break Up at Food Court (Demo, 2000)
14. Wandering (Demo, 2000)
15. Hiro’s Song (Demo, 2000)
16. The Secret Life of Morgan Davis (Alternate Mix, 2001)
17. Such Great Heights (Alternate Mix from MySpace Sessions, 2006)
18. Bitches Ain’t Shit
19. Time (Alternate Version, 2004)
20. Sleazy
21. Because the Origami – 8in8 (Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Neil Gaiman, and Damian Kulash)
22. Stumblin’ Home Winter Blues -Ben Folds Five (New track, 2011)

Original version of Disc 1, Track 1 and Tracks 6 and 11 from Whatever and Ever Amen (550 Music, 1997)
Disc 1, Tracks 2, 8 and 10 and original version of Track 13 from Rockin’ the Suburbs (Epic, 2001). Track 13 previously unreleased on CD.
Disc 1, Tracks 3-4 from Ben Folds Five (Caroline, 1995)
Original version of Track 5 and Track 12 from Songs for Silverman (Epic, 2005)
Disc 1, Track 7 from The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner (550 Music, 1999)
Disc 1, Track 9 and Disc 2, Track 11 previously unreleased on CD – originally released on the DVD Ben Folds and WASO Live in Perth (Epic, 2005)
Disc 1, Track 14 from Way to Normal (Epic, 2008)
Disc 1, Track 15 from Sunny 16 (Epic, 2003)
Disc 1, Track 16 from Over the Hedge: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Epic, 2006)
Disc 1, Track 17 from Lonely Avenue (Nonesuch, 2010)
Disc 1, Track 18 is a previously unreleased new track
Disc 2, Tracks 1-2, 4-10, 12, 14-16, 18-21 previously unreleased
Disc 2, Track 3 from The Best of Hard Rock Cafe Live, Sire 31069, 2000
Disc 2, Track 11 from Live in Perth, Epic DVD 07464 58494-9 , 2005
Disc 2, Track 13 from Live at MySpace, Epic DVD, 2007
Disc 2, Track 17 from The Sound of Last Night…This Morning, iTunes-exclusive, no cat. no., 2009
Disc 3, Tracks 1-6, 9-17, 19, 22 previously unreleased
Disc 3, Track 7 from Rare on Air 3: KCRW Performances , Mammoth 162, 1997
Disc 3, Track 8 from Me, Myself and Irene: Original Soundtrack, Elektra 62512, 2000
Disc 3, Track 18 from B-side of “Landed” 7-inch vinyl single, Epic 34 71845, 2005
Disc 3, Track 20 from Download to Donate’s Tsunami Relief, no cat. no., 2011
Disc 3, Track 21 from Nighty Night, no cat. no., 2011