Ben Folds Five: Whatever And Ever, Amen

Talented pianist/composer/arranger Ben Folds burst from the Chapel Hill indie scene two years ago, releasing a marvelous album full of pop intuitiveness and ingenuity. The record, recorded with his band Ben Folds Five, effortlessly meshed Gershwin solos and fuzzed-out basslines while channeling the best portions of the souls of Joe Jackson and Billy Joel. Whatever And Ever, Amen, Ben Folds Five's major-label debut, offers more of the same pop-juggernaut sensibilities, while also playing some effective conceptual tricks: The album celebrates the sounds of the '70s while deconstructing their relevance to the retro-obsessed '90s. Pulling licks from one do-nothing generation to scold another, Folds takes potshots at the renaissance of bad TV, second-generation trust-funders, and hipster exchange-student layabouts. It's all done in fun, because Ben Folds Five is, well, fun—listen to the frenetic, Klezmatics-backed shimmyfest "Stephen's Last Night In Town" once and you'll be smiling for hours. But Folds expresses a lingering dissatisfaction that suggests he may have found a role for himself: If he's not quite a spokesman, he's at least delivering a wake-up call.