Ben Folds Rockin' the Suburbs (Epic) With the...  September 16,
2001|By Greg Kot.  Ben Folds  Rockin' the Suburbs (Epic)  With
the Ben Folds Five, the namesake pianist tried to split the
difference between wiseguy and wimp, sarcasm and introspection.
On his solo debut, he tries to finesse the same chasm, only
instead of thumping post-grunge rock, he offers mostly florid
'70s-style AM-radio pop. Folds' songcraft echoes everyone from
Barry Manilow to ELO, and the irony of the title song, where he
mocks easy targets such as Quiet Riot and Bon Jovi, verges on
self-parody. Yet Folds does have a soul, as evidenced by
gorgeously empathetic tunes such as "Annie Waits," "Fred Jones
Part 2" and "Lucky." Now the challenge is to wipe the smirk off
his face and make an entire album as strong and sincere as those
tunes.