#her followers HATE her! local doth won't shut up about ben folds five songs and mdzs!!!!

[desperatepleasures]

Guess What! Every Song From ‘The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind’ By Ben Folds Five Is Secretly About MDZS!

Erase Me

as all breakup songs, this is very clearly about wwx and jc’s falling out. lots of anger and resentment and oh no they’re really not complete without each other!

What was our home Paper not stone A lean-to at most And when you pulled your half away Gravity won

Michael Praytor, Five Years Later

this baby’s about all the people wwx runs into a bunch of times throughout his life! some of whom he forgets exist (su she, jin zixun), and some of whom he simply did not think would reappear in his life. then he gets yeeted into mxy’s body, almost immediately runs into lwj, and:

It was the opposite of 'Fire and Rain' You know the song I never thought I'd see this guy again But I was wrong

Sky High

one of many wangxian songs you’ll find on this album. this one’s particularly bittersweet. vibes of their falling out before the guanyin temple scene?

Last night at the bar, I was wrong, I was only hurting And you were acting too polite When we held onto the pain, through the storms and the rain Like a crumpled, empty, discarded Newports box

and WORSE: vibes of their parting at the end of cql. :(

The brightness of air Out walking somewhere, and when they ask you Just tell em that you knew me back when, under the blue sky

The Sound Of The Life Of The Mind

this is a blatant lwj character song. a character who thinks themself Above all the Teen Drama going on around them and tries to focus on Learning? who is quiet on the outside but on the inside their thoughts are running wild? that’s hanguang-jun babyyyy! 

But Sara, well, she just can't bear The stupidity, the boredom, the grind She stays at school so that she can hear The sound of the life of the mind

And it's noisy up there

On Being Frank

ben folds really thought he could fool me into not realizing this was a wangxian song by explicitly writing this song about frank sinatra’s tour manager. but he went and wrote a song about dealing with the death of a person you shaped your entire life around.

don’t worry mr folds. i saw your wangxian vibes.

But home for me was always someone else, you know That shadows always fall when the sun goes down

Draw A Crowd

this song has wwx vibes in a way i can’t fully articulate. maybe because it’s a seemingly jokey song but it’s really about being miserable and disconnected with the life that you worked really hard to achieve. gives me vibes of sunshot-era wwx trying to convince his family he’s the Same Old Wei Ying but really he’s dead inside. 

I ordered something, it took a while This morning something was on my doorstep What's this I'm holding? Time capsule order 'Cause I'm a brand new man, and I don't think I want it I don't think I want it A row of flags hangin' behind me A garden of mics and questions, and photo-flashes blind me And I'm so high, I can't recall my statements I only know I made 'em because my face vibrated

Do It Anyway

ah yes, the most fanmixable ben folds five song of all time. this song rocks. the bassline absolutely fucks. the music video has fraggles in it. and it’s a wangxian song..... 

There will be times you might leap before you look There'll be times you'll like the cover and that's precisely why you'll love the book Do it anyway

No, seriously guys, it’s a wangxian song!

Tell me what you said you'd never do Tell me what you said you'd never say Read me off that list of things 'cause I used to not like you But now I think you're OK

NO FOR REAL! WANGXIAN!

Call it surrender but you know that that's a joke And the punchline is you were never actually in control But still, surrender anyway

AND a solid wwx character song!

Despite your grand attempts the chips are set to fall And all the stories you might weave cannot negotiate them all Do it anyway

....and that’s me being restrained and not just posting all the lyrics. seriously, guys, what was ben thinking? he was thinking wangxian is what he was thinking.

Hold That Thought

as always i am gonna ignore the first verse of this song. HOWEVER. more wangxian but from lwj’s perspective this time. 

I was shown the thirty-six Ways I'm not available On a simple, easy chart

Later on that evening On the beach in Santa Monica It was a very risky start

Suppose the stupid chart is right In a year will you still feel the same way? Ah, well, you hold that thought And I'll hold that thought, too

Away When You Were Here

well lads. we’ve reached the strongest jiang “daddy issues” cheng character song in existence. congratulations, ben. you wrote a narrator who is mourning their father’s death while simultaneously mourning the relationship they never had with their father even when he was alive. 

Sometimes a phrase or a manner that's you Comes through me, it goes in a flash It's a frame, it's a blink like life Oh and how much now should we pay for the past Cause you could age with grace if I freed you in my mind

But I loved you then And I love you now All the things I wished I'd asked When I'm lost in clouds I remember how I was robbed and I was blessed And you were away even when you were here

every day of my life i think about the line “how much now should we pay for the past?” in a jiang cheng context and that is like 95% of the reason i need therapy. 

Thank You For Breaking My Heart

this is a pretty straightforward angsty wangxian song. it hits hard in a “lwj after the cave scene in mdzs right before wwx dies” way, and in a “lwj asking wwx to come to cloud recesses” way. 

Thank you for breaking my heart Now I know that it's in there I left it wide open and asked you to stay But you know better

OH NOW I’M SAD. DON’T WORRY BABY. YOU’LL GET HIM EVENTUALLY.

ben, you ended this album on such a depressing note. but it’s a great album!