Ben Folds
' first solo project away from the ultra-pop of
Ben Folds Five
is not the upbeat, piano banging you would expect after listening to his previous work. As his project's name spells out in bold letters,
Fear of Pop
collects all of the nasty little demons running through
Folds
' mind when he's singing his sweet ditties. The biggest distinction is the addition of guitar, a
BF5
no-no. Screeching chords christen the album's title track as
howls at his most unharmonic. From there, every track continues on in a different experimental vein that paints
as some manic child who has just gotten a recording studio for Christmas. 1970s sleaze
funk
mixes with
avant-garde
flute and muffled crime-scene samples on
"Kops"
;
"Blink"
sounds like background music at a planetarium laser light show; the
synth pop
throwback
"Avery M. Powers Memorial Speedway"
sounds like a lost
Heaven 17
/
Sigue Sigue Sputnik
collaboration. Most interesting of
' experiments is
"In Love,"
which gives
William Shatner
, Mr. Golden Throat himself, a chance to mutter suave, obscure poetry over a sea of smooth backing vocals and tinny drum machines.
Shatner
's appearance is enough to clue you in that
is anything but serious with this eclectic surge of energy. If anything, the bizarre humor mixed with the swift sounds and firm beats makes
Volume 1
a danceable novelty record with a justified sense of end-of-the-millennium attention deficit disorder. ~ Jason Kaufman