(EMI)
While industry rags have been touting - or forcing - 1997 to be the year of electronica, it may be the "old fashioned" instrument of the piano which is one of the year's most celebrated instruments.
Ben Folds Five's approach to the piano has been similar to Joe Jackson and Squeeze, taking an alternative to the Billy Joel/Elton John rock-piano combination. While the key member of fff, John Ondrasik, has less in common with Folds than with either Billy or Elton, he also takes a unique approach to re-introducing the piano as a instrument which can be used to rock.
"I don't consider myself a pianist," Ondrasik notes, trying to separate himself from the stereotyped perception. "I consider myself a songwriter who can use the piano as a writing and performing tool."
And on cuts such as the first single "Bella's Birthday Cake", Ondrasik and fIVE fOR fIGHTING do exactly that. The cake is for the 50 year old woman who is the centerpiece of the song. And the lyrics, while open-ended to interpretation, probably hit home to many people. "Love Song" is about divorcing parents through the eyes of an innocent youngster, with a pace that strikes memories of 10,000 Maniacs' "What's The Matter Here", while other tracks touch on human emotions with a sensitivity seldom seen in most rock songs.
The music on ...Messsage For Albert... also is distringuishable from most other acts. Check out the strings on "Day By Day", "Ocean" and "White Picket Fence", which blend eloquently with Ondrasik's piano and the sound which fIVE fOR fIGHTING is trying to create. "Wise Man" utilizes backup vocals such as those used by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young with guitars of the 1990s, and other tracks such as the aforementioned "Bella's Birthday Cake", "2 Frogs" and "Happy" evoke comparisons to Queen, The Who, and many other classic rock favorites of the 1970s.
Because of Ondrasik's raspy voice a la Mother Love Bone's Andrew Wood, the band sometimes bears much in common (with the addition of piano and harmonies) to some of Seattle's better known grunge bands. And as some of those Pearl Jam fans grow older, it wouldn't be surprising to see them take to the lyrical and musical talents of fIVE fOR fIGHTING.
