Ben Folds Five - Ben Folds Five

Before "Brick" and the album surrounding it became one of the biggest and most controversial hits of the 90's, Ben Folds Five was already up and running, doing precisely what they have always done. The band's debut album shows that they have always had a metric ton of talent and a heaping buttload of vision. They pretty much were who they wanted to be from the word "go." Of course when I talk about the band, I'm mostly talking about the guy the band is named after who eventually went solo and kept doing what he does despite the lack of two other permanent members of the band. So yeah, any and all compliments for Ben Folds Five apply equally and retroactively to Ben Folds himself. I'm sure he'd want it that way.

Anyway, while you could point to at least a half dozen other famous piano rockers from the 1970's, the same could not be said for the 1990's. Ben Folds didn't have any company in the piano rocking department until that guy from Something Corporate came along, but he's not even technically in the same genre, so I don't know why I even mention him. Ben Folds and the other two dudes who make up the five were in a genre of their own when this platter hit the shelves in 1995. This is something unique and amazing. Every song on the album reminds the listener that Ben Folds has an uncanny grasp of his instrument as well as an equally uncanny knack for write oddly compelling pop songs. If you told someone who believes in UFO's that Ben Folds was a being from beyond the stars, they would believe it; partially because it seems a logical explanation and partially because they're a gullible whackadoodle. In summary, this album is really good and you will love it.

Oh, and big ups to me for not mentioning Todd Rundgren in this review. And no, me mentioning that I didn't mention him doesn't count as a mention. I make the rules and I don't break them, fool.

Baleeted? No, but only because I believe in UFO's. Not the flying saucer kind, but the kind with Michael Schenker. It's a bad joke, but I couldn't help myself.