Ben Folds

With the Ben Folds Five abortion ballad “Brick,” Ben Folds scored his first major hit, a baleful departure from his usual goofball piano romps. With his solo career, Ben Folds has swung back and forth between “Brick”-like confessionals and uptempo, irreverent silliness. For 2005’s Songs for Silverman, for instance, Folds channeled his inner Elliott Smith, but his latest album, Way to Normal, his highest charting yet, evokes “Weird Al” Yankovic in its light tone and eagerness to please. Like Elton John, Billie Joel and the other great piano men before him, Folds wants to have it both ways, balladeering while bringing the crowd to its feet.