Library Rock's Backpages

The Ben Folds Five: Steinway to Heaven

Chris Ingham, MOJO, June 1999

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?

Total word count of piece: 679

Subscribe

Becoming a member is easy. Membership gives you access to all the thousands of articles in the library.

Click here to go to Subscribe page.

Click here for academic and other group subscriptions.