The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner is the third studio album by Ben Folds Five, released on April 27, 1999. Produced by the band's usual collaborator, Caleb Southern, it represented a departure for the band from their usual pop-rock sound to material influenced by classical and chamber music, with darker, introspective lyrics on subjects such as regret, death, and loss of innocence. The band broke up shortly after the touring period of the album, and as a result the record was considered the final release from the trio until they reunited in 2011 and released The Sound of the Life of the Mind the following year.