999,789: Ben Folds Five - Uncle Walter

Ben Folds Five is so squeaky clean, it's the kind of band you can listen to on the drive BACK from Vegas to make yourself feel clean, sweet and innocent again. Everything about them is wholesome: from the cheery frilly piano, upbeat drums to jokey vocals. With that kind of street rep, people tend to give BF5 the side-eye in terms of "great band" status. There's nary a curse word or hard-edged anything. The 3 piece drums/bass/keys line-up didn't revolutionize music, just pumped out some cheesy piano-rock.

But they aren't exactly polished either....especially early Ben Folds Five, like "Uncle Walter." The messy pop cacophony captures that moment the band finally just managed to learn to put the song together. But what a song! Folds' effortlessly navigates a very large-range tightly packed vocal and jazzy piano solo. Not to mention the sophisticated contrast of the song's theme of batty old man matched with their jingle-jangle sound. Here the band is in the prime of their youth lamenting the everyday awkward of being left alone with a spaced out senior citizen.

Ben Folds Five may have been juvenile, but they certainly weren't stupid.