Additional personnel: Alicia Svigals (violin); John Catchings (cello); Matt Darriau (clarinet); Frand London (trumpet); Caleb Southern (Hammond organ).

Includes seven bonus tracks.

Ben Folds Five: Darren Jessee, Robert Sledge, Ben Folds.

Personnel: Ben Folds (vocals, piano); Darren Jessee (vocals, drums); Robert Sledge (vocals); David Angel, John Catchings, Kristin Wilkinson, David Davidson (strings); John Mark Painter (horns, double bass, percussion, background vocals); Shaun McWilliams, Todd Collins (percussion); Fleming McWilliams (background vocals).

Audio Mixers: Ben Folds; Joe Costa; John Mark Painter; Andy Wallace; Brendan O'Brien.

Audio Remasterer: Marc Chevalier.

Recording information: Ben's House (09/1996-10/1996); Home, Chapel Hill, NC (09/1996-10/1996); John's House, Nashville, TN (09/1996-10/1996); RPM Studios, New York, NY (09/1996-10/1996); Southern Tracks, Atlanta, GA (09/1996-10/1996).

Boldly hacking his way through the muck-infested swamplands of post-Nirvana alternative rock, Ben Folds comes to save the day with an album of pure pop delights that provide a welcome alternative to "alternative." Despite the name, the Ben Folds Five is a trio consisting of Folds on piano and vocals, a bassist and a drummer. There are echoes of everything from vintage Todd Rundgren and Joe Jackson to Hoboken-based popsters like the dB's and Freedy Johnston in the band's frothy compositions. And there are no guitars.

Bassist Robert Sledge is on a one-man mission to bring back the fuzz-bass, utilizing the '60s bass technique to fill out the sound of the trio, and sometimes sounding more like a guitarist or keyboardist. Folds is an accomplished pianist, and has no qualms about giving the instrument the rock and roll spotlight that it's often denied. Ignore the knee-jerk Elton John comparisons. Folds may be equally influenced by show tunes and the Beatles, but WHATEVER rocks more convincingly than a gaggle of guitar-worshipping grunge puppies.

Music in the mid-2000s seems more diverse and stratified. But in the general guitar-bass-drum format of '90s alternative rock, the Ben Folds Five piano-and-rhythm show really was an anomaly. This is a point of pride for Folds in his notes for the expanded, newly remastered edition of Whatever and Ever Amen, his band's 1997 commercial breakthrough. "We...had moved my baby grand all by ourselves for three years into every punk rock club in America that didn't want us there," he writes. "Singing Broadway harmonies and playing pretty chords to upset the indie kids." "Brick" was the unlikeliest of hit singles, a sad piano story nevertheless propelled by its poignant chorus and Folds' delivery as the slacker forced by circumstance to grow up fast. And a Todd Rundgren/Joe Jackson nod like "Selfless, Cold and Composed" wasn't going to be mistaken for some of the louder songs of the era. But Whatever still had loads of alt-rock swagger, mostly in Folds' smart, smug lyrics. In that category, "Battle of Who Could Care Less" was a masterpiece. "You think Rockford Files is cool/But there are some things that you would change," he sings over a track mixing '70s pop schlock with grimy '90s rhythm. "So think about your masterpiece/Watch The Rockford Files/Call to see if Paul can score some weed." The 2005 Whatever and Ever Amen is remastered, and features testimonials from bassist Robert Sledge and drummer Darren Jesse in addition to Folds' notes. It includes seven B-sides and non-LP tracks, the highlights being a Japanese-language version of "Song for the Dumped" ("You bitch" evidently doesn't translate), "For All the Pretty People," and a cover of the Flaming Lips' classic "She Don't Use Jelly," and features an enjoyable, previously unreleased version of "Video Killed the Radio Star." And now we meet in an abandoned studio; we hear the playback and it seems so long ago. ~ Johnny Loftus