Music Review: Five For Fighting "Slice"

I recently had the privilege to review Five For Fighting's new album, Slice. If you're a regular visitor to my blog you know that I'm a Five For Fighting fan. I've featured them more than once on my Music Monday posts.

Although known as Five For Fighting, (FFF) the talent behind the name is John Ondrasik. John has been an accomplished pianist since he was a child and writes lyrics that are poignant and stirring; telling stories of his life and sentiments, along with current issues - lyrics we can all relate to.

John, himself, is quite an interesting person I found in reading his bio. He's not just a composer/songwriter/musician, he uses his talent and celebrity in many other ways. He's a husband and father, writes for Sports Illustrated, scores music for films, and is heavily involved in charity work. He's even started a site, http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/, that is a charity "You Tube" of sorts. Anyone who wants to help can make and submit a video and when people watch that video money will be donated to one of five charities. Over $250,000 has already been donated.

John's lyrics are probably the reason I love his work so much. When my husband hears a song he only hears the music. I, on the other hand, mainly hear the lyrics. I love a song that touches my soul, my feelings, on a matter. John's music does that. I think of his song, 100 years, which I used on my son's graduation video. It came out just around the time that my son was 15 and the lyrics, "15 there's still time for you. Time to buy, time to lose yourself within a morning star. 15 I'm all right with you. 15, there's never a wish better than this, when you only got 100 years to live." brought me to tears the first few times I heard them. I couldn't help but think about how time flies and how much I wanted for him to experience in that short amount of time.

In Slice, his newest album, the tracks are no different. In the title track he ruminates about a by-gone era when music was more important. He brings home the point by saying, “There was a time a long, long time ago/Chevies and levies played on the radio/No cell phones just 20,000 lights, swaying on a Saturday night.” Most of us will relate immediately because we are familiar with the song he is playing off of, American Pie.

I've listened to the entire album five for more times now and on my first listen I thought that the forth track, Chances, was my favorite. However, I now wonder if it wasn't just because I was subliminally more familiar with it. I say subliminally because I noticed a few days after listening to the album that the song was being used in a commercial for one of my favorite shows. Either way, it's still a great song with the message that we have to dive in, head-first, to the unfamiliar, which will sometimes end badly but sometimes we get lucky and as the song says, "chances are more than expectations...the possibilities."

I told you I was a lyrics person and because of that what I thought was my least favorite of the eleven tracks has ended up at the top of my list. That song is track number 11, Augie Nieto. I have fallen in love with a quote from that song, "It's not the breaths you take, It's how you breathe." I listened to that song and realized that Augie must be a real person who had ALS, so I came home and Googled him. After reading a bit about him I realized why John was inspired to write the song. His positive outlook is something we would all do well to imitate.

There are so many aspects to this album. It's not just a bunch of the same story set to different music. In addition to the songs mentioned above, others of note are, Story Of Your Life, (track 9) which was written for John's wife of 12 years, but I think it would make a great backdrop to an anniversary video. This Dance, (#5) which is very romantic -- what girl wouldn't love to be told, "You put the beautiful in life"? and Note To The Unknown Soldier.

This is, of course, not an album that will make you get up and dance, but more of one that will make you think, feed your soul, and maybe even put you in the mood to relax or be romantic. It would be a great backdrop at a dinner party.

Overall, if you are a Five For Fighting fan, love incredible piano music, and/or are someone who wants to enjoy lyrics that have real meaning, you will be as impressed with Five For Fighting's new album as I was. I'd love to know your thoughts on it, so be sure to comment if you've listened to it.





(The only compensation received for this post was a free download of the album, which did not affect my review.)