'Silverman' puts Ben Folds back in groove

updated 12:47 p.m. ET May 6, 2005

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. - After years of self-imposed obscurity, Ben Folds hoped to score a commercial hit with "Rockin' the Suburbs." It debuted on Sept. 11, 2001.

The timing on Folds' new album, "Songs for Silverman," is much better for the 38-year-old singer-pianist and former frontman for the confusingly named trio Ben Folds Five.

The band emerged from Chapel Hill's music scene a decade ago, scoring a hit with the song "Brick." They broke up in October 2000.

"I had to step out of the business for a bit," Folds told The Associated Press during a recent trip back to Chapel Hill. "I felt like I put my best sort of pop music business foot forward with 'Rockin' the Suburbs.' ... In the end it just ended up being a disappointment commercially and critically. When I go back and listen to it I think it's a really good, well-crafted record that shouldn't be taken for granted but it did get that way, so stepping into the studio again it's like, 'What's your next move?'

"I didn't want a next move, I just wanted to make music."

Folds' music is bubble-gum pop for the intelligentsia, with a trademark blend of sardonic humor and wistful sadness. Since 2000, Folds has released two studio albums, three EPs, a live album, and a one-time collaboration with Ben Kweller and Ben Lee, called, "The Bens."

He also rereleased Ben Folds Five's biggest hit album, "Whatever and Ever Amen," with seven bonus tracks, including a cover of "Video Killed the Radio Star."

As evidenced by that cover and others, including remakes of The Cure's "In Between Days" and Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre's "B------ Ain't S---," Folds has a gift for mining the beauty out of what many regard as disposable pop culture trash.

"The lyrics are so crude, I could barely do it," he said of the Dr. Dre cover. "But I made a really pretty melody and it actually makes the song kind of sad. ... It's gonna freak a few people out because it's actually about as foul as you can get."

Equally freaky, perhaps, is the notion of Folds working as producer of William Shatner's recent album, "Has Been." The former "Star Trek" and "T.J. Hooker" star is best known musically for his famously awful cover of "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds."

"He's a total creative maven," Shatner said of Folds. "He's got this wonderful gift to allow his creative thoughts to flow unimpeded to his fingers. The definition of music has been stretched by Ben Folds."

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