Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five (Passenger/Caroline)
by Marc Hirsh
Ben Folds Five
Ben Folds Five (Passenger/Caroline)
by Marc Hirsh
originally published in the Public News, April 10, 1996
Newcomers A. J. Croce and even Grammy-validated Marc Cohn having vanished without a trace, veterans Billy Joel and Elton John are the only men making rock-oriented, piano-driven music these days. Seeing their chance to fill the void, the Ben Folds Five come across like Joe Jackson with Cavedogs dreams to nudge their way onto equal footing with the current wave of alternative female piano prodigies such as Tori Amos and Sarah McLaughlin.
Leading a trio more appropriate for jazz than for the type of rock in evidence on his band's debut, Ben Folds writes witty, uptempo pop songs, sings in an engagingly thin voice and plays piano like the percussion instrument it's always been. Beating the keys like prime Jerry Lee Lewis, Folds brings songs like "Julianne," with its falsetto chorus and speed-freak tempo, closer to the Undertones than Tony Bennett. What little jazz influence there is pops up only sporadically in songs like the jaunty "Where's Summer B.?"
Put behind a guitar player, bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jessee could be a fine punk rhythm section. Behind Folds, they keep things under control while Folds takes a hard left from piano balladry. Songs like the peppy opener, "Jackson Cannery," and the more nostalgic "Alice Childress" sound like mid-'70s pop turned upside down. The album's closer, "Boxing," is as close to Billy Joel as Folds dares to get, a slow-moving waltz too punch-drunk to do more than stagger painfully towards its own conclusion. Rather than milking it for pathos, Folds sets it out as it is, and what it is is stunning. This is a real gem of an album.