Flying solo, Ben Folds finds own key in latest album

"...And don't forget to give me back my black tee shirt!"

Many of us have, no doubt, belted out these words at the top of our lungs on some solo road trip, or perhaps in the shower when we think nobody's listening. They are, for those who don't immediately recognize them, some of the memorable lyrics popularized by Ben Folds Five, specifically from the band's vengeful but hilarious "Song for the Dumped."

The North Carolina-based group, famed for hits like "Brick," "Army," "Battle of Who Could Care Less," "Fair" and a slew of others, has a quirky and unique sound, and is well-known for its frontman's stellar piano talent. Some lucky members of the class of 2003 may have heard this piano powerhouse pound out his infectious melodies and impressive arpeggios when the band came to Dillon Gym in 1999.

Now, things are a little different – Ben Folds is returning to the Princeton campus, but this time it's without the "Five" (which was really only two anyway), and in a much more intimate venue. He'll be performing solo this Sunday at 7:30 in Richardson Auditorium to an already-sold-out house.

Folds, 36, separated from the band, which had been together for seven years, in 2001, claiming that the departure was amicable and that the group arrived at a natural stopping point.

"As a unit," he told the Detroit News in an interview, the group was just "tired, and [they] weren't able to make musical and other kinds of decisions." He also claims that he "sounded better by [him]self."

To see how he would fare on his own, Folds put out his first solo album since leaving the band, entitled "Rockin' the Suburbs," which was met with mixed reviews upon its release last year.

Folds also took his new solo act on the road. Just this past Saturday, Folds concluded a tour of the United Kingdom with a group called The Divine Comedy, in which he visited Dublin, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, and London.

Folds begins his U.S. leg of the tour today, performing in Englewood, NJ. After Englewood, he'll venture to Brooklyn, performing two shows at the Brooklyn Academy of Music Opera house. After two nights in Brooklyn, Folds will come back to New Jersey and perform here at Richardson. After Princeton, he is scheduled to visit venues in Washington, DC, Philadelphia, Baltimore, New Orleans, Gainesville, Pittsburgh, Lexington, and Walla Walla, Washington, among others.

Many of the song titles on the new album bear names of fictitious people ("Annie Waits," "Zak and Sara," "Losing Lisa," and "Carrying Cathy"), suggesting that Folds envisions his songs as parables in which each of his hypothetical characters learns a life lesson. Folds subtly imparts his personal advice, cloaked inside the tunes' bubbly refrains, to his listener. By using generalized characters to whom most people can relate, Folds gives the new album a very intimate feel, almost as if the listener were sitting beside him on a couch and hearing him tell the stories firsthand.

As for the album's general sound, many of the songs sound very similar to one another and all bear a striking melodic resemblance to much of the band's earlier work. Some critics have chastised Folds for this – the fact that few of his solo pieces are distinguishable from those songs produced when Ben still had his "five."

On the upside, however, those who were partial to the tunes from "Whatever and Ever Amen" and "The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner will be very pleased with "Rockin' the Suburbs." And fans of the cheeky, self-aware humor present in "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" will especially like the title track, an upbeat song in which Folds pokes fun at being just another "suburban white kid" trying to make it in the music business.

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It's ironic that McCarter Theatre, which is responsible for bringing Folds to the Richardson stage, bills him on its website as the "postmodern piano man," since last year, the original "piano man," Billy Joel himself, took to the same stage. Joel was candid, and there was nothing standing between him and the devoted audience. We can expect Folds' performance to be much like Joel's had been, at least in terms of aesthetics –pared down to the essentials.

Nothing but a very talented man and his piano. No fancy gimmicks, no smoke and mirrors — just good music.