Fear Of Pop: Volume I : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

Ben Folds is one of the most gifted practitioners of melodic power pop since Todd Rundgren, and, like Rundgren (for better or worse), he's unafraid to take a way-ward turn. On the eclectic aural collage that is Volume 1 Folds and collaborator Caleb Southern play the studio like the proverbial kids in a candy shop. It's a wacky, antipop bite at the hand that feeds, worth a spin for its slaloming grooves and desiccated wit. Folds enlists the golden-throated William Shatner for a histrionic cameo on "In Love" and musically animates some sort of screwy getaway scene in "Rubber Sled." "I Paid My Money" is an invigorating Talking Heads-style funk recitative, while the glimmering mass harmonies on a couple of tracks prove that Folds can't entirely keep his pop aura under wraps. This tangent may well find a cult following for its juxtaposition of rhythmic chaos, ambient sound and ironic context, but it's not for everyone. Caveat emptor.