Mitchell Lane

Mitchell Lane was written in Ben Folds Five's early days, and was included on the Kate and Brick singles until, more recently, the remastered version of Whatever and Ever Amen. Mitchell Lane is a street, not a person (which some people mistake it for), and it intersects with Rosemary Street, which was referenced in Kate. The song's essentially about being stuck in the same place, the same small town all your life. "Habit isn't bliss"; living out a life habitually and monotonously doesn't make you happy. The song seems to just be a list of different conditions that can break the monotony, but never really change the way everything is, no matter how much they complain about it. The last verse is more cryptic; my interpretation is that when they were fifteen, they had the chance to get out of there, but their friends (Robbie) were sad to see the leave, so they passed up their chance. He's stayed in the same town since, when he could be anywhere else in the world right now. Overall, this is one of my favorite Ben Folds Five songs. It's very powerful, yet it's still a slow, rather enchanting piano ballad. I wish it had got more exposure than it did.