Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

What is "New Math"? Let's take an example: Ben Folds Five minus two equals Ben Folds. Make sense? It will when you listen to the new Ben Folds album "Rockin the Suburbs." (Don't like math? Neither do I.) For those who haven't heard Ben Folds before, he is one hell of a piano player.

On his albums with Ben Folds Five he has wowed listeners with his ivory tickling, which combines the melodic complexity of a Jim Brickman with the balls to the wall style of a Jim Steinman intro. Whether fast or slow, there isn't a track on this album that doesn't prominently feature the piano.

However, he takes it a step further also. On this album, he plays every instrument you hear. Most of the songs on the album are mournful and show a degree of emotional understanding that is quite gratifying. Songs touch on growing old ("Still Fighting It"), a suicidal friend ("Carrying Cathy"), and a rather quirky Benny and Joon type relationship ("Zak and Sara"). In his more rocking moments, he does some tongue-in-cheek attacking of hippies who grow into the very things they started out protesting ("The Ascent of Stan") and the dearth of angst rock we now have, with the title track "Rockin the Suburbs". He sings of "white boy pain" and "producers with computers that fix all my shitty tracks."

However, the strength of this album lies in the brutal honesty and amazingly clear portraits he paints of a variety of people, most of whom are probably very close to any number of our own inner selves. One of the most wistful tracks on the album, "Fred Jones Part 2", takes a sobering look at someone being laid off. He nails the corporate world (that incidentally puts food on my table) perfectly when he sings "No one is left here that knows his first name and life barrels on like a runaway train, and the passengers change and they don't change a thing...you get off and someone else gets on."

On the final track, "The Luckiest", he gives the listener an absolutely stunning ballad. It is a love song from a quirky point of view, but in it's simplicity and sincerity it echoes everything I've ever wanted to say when someone has consistently turned my knees to jelly. (Now, unfortunately, I have to rely on Goldschlager to turn my knees to jelly but, hey, it works.) Fans of Ben Folds Five should enjoy this album as should anyone who loves good, melodic piano rock. His piano playing far outshadows just about anything I've heard in recent years, and on this album he has added orchestral touches that complement his style perfectly.