Ben Folds

While most acts resorted to angst and angular guitars to project the aggro overtones of alternative rock in the ’90s, Ben Folds pelted ex-lovers (“Song for the Dumped”) and indie elitists (“Underground,” “Battle of Who Could Care Less”) with terse piano pop and machete-sharp sarcasm. He’s quite good at wrenching heartstrings as well (“Brick”).

His sly smirk may suggest otherwise, but Ben Folds is more than a wisenheimer with hooks batting around in his head. Like a Gen X Billy Joel, he’s able to Xerox pop standards (“Tiny Dancer”) and even pay a heartfelt tribute to a fallen friend (“Late,” about Elliott Smith) like a play-it-again piano man.

Between his solo career, side projects, and three solid albums with the who-needs-guitars power-pop trio Ben Folds Five, Ben Folds has amassed a dense discography. Fear of Pop is actually a delightful solo alias, the Bens is a supergroup trio united by baby names (Ben Kweller, Folds, and Lee), and our other selections scrape the best songs from his splendid solo EPs.

Ben Folds sure looks innocent perched behind his piano, doesn’t he? Precious even. That is, until he starts pounding out beguiling melodies and exhaling pure sarcasm in that fierce falsetto of his. In recent years, he’s evolved into a consistent, in-it-for-the-long-haul singer-songwriter; as the unlikely Joe Jackson/Billy Joel frontman of Ben Folds Five, he punctuated the one-two combo of a rigid rhythm section with gut-punching pop. And throughout it all, our antihero prevails.