With his latest album, Way To Normal, garnering the exact opposite of praise from quality sound lovers, it didn’t seem likely that this would happen, but today on Folds’ Myspace blog he announced that he will soon be giving away, to fanclub members, an uncompressed audiophile version of his latest album - on two discs, no less, with the first disc filled with the album plus extras and the second containing “stems,” or basic audio tracks, for remixing the album as you like. That said, he does seem to be going about this grudgingly, as if being prodded uncomfortably by someone holding a sharp stick at his back: “Although I stand behind the official version of this album and have the utmost respect for the producer and engineers involved, I’m a populist at heart and saw no reason not to provide a slightly different approach for those who prefer more old fashioned dynamics along with a sequence that builds.” “Old fashioned dynamics” is how he says “music that doesn’t sound like a screaming wall of noise.” Isn’t that quaint? He must love the new Metallica album.

I haven’t been the die-est of hardiest fans of Folds, but I like what I like a lot - that said, I found his previous album, Songs For Silverman, to be a snore-fest, and found myself growing more interested in this new album of his based on reviews. Now I have no reason to buy the regular version - I joined the fanclub solely to get this version of the album, as I have no need for the crap-sounding regular edition. No word on when the thing ships, but there is mention of “Feb. 15″ being the drop-dead date for new fanclub members to get this two-disc Normal, so I would guess it’s after that.

Oh, and that membership gets you a t-shirt! Yay!