Ben Folds — Songs For Silverman

Ben Folds has always been the smart-alecky guy with a squishy heart, capable of dissing exes and suburban white boy angst while delivering irony-free tearjerkers dedicated to members of his family. Although his first solo disc turned down the smarty-pants charm in favour of big-sounding pop-rock, Folds' long-awaited follow-up (after a trio of mail order-only EPs) unfortunately turns it down even more. Thankfully, the piano man is still 10 times better than that Five For Fighting dude when he's offering life-instruction-book nuggets like "time takes time" (on "Time") and "if you can't trust, you can't be trusted" (on, um, "Trusted"). OK, so while some of the song titles are a little less than creative, Folds doesn’t stretch too far from his tales of middle America (including the sublime sweeping number "Jesusland"), nor does he stray from his tender-hearted, aw-shucks piano-pop. But sometimes innovation is overrated and this sentimental guy works earnest tunes like a genuine perennial.

Get it from