The Ben Folds Five: Steinway to Heaven

IT'S TEMPTING TO IMAGINE that in eschewing guitars and positioning the grand piano as the centrepiece sound of their three maverick alt-pop albums, the Ben Folds Five have a driven mission to restore the majestic instrument to its place at the centre of rock'n'roll, where it once was. Was the piano-led power pop trio a lofty, pre-conceived notion or is the BF5 just the band that Darren Jesse (drums) Robert Sledge (bass) and Ben Folds (piano/lead vocals/songs) happened to end up in?