ben folds

"A piano's all I got/and I know that ain't a lot," Ben Folds laments wryly in "The Frown Song," the third song on Way to Normal, his first release in three years.

For longtime fans, his irony is clear-this witty piano man of the '90s has produced a host of solid albums and attracted a sizable following, but Folds' words are unintentionally telling on his third solo album. The album is enjoyable but hardly groundbreaking work, suggesting that the sarcasm-and-piano combo might really be all he's got.

"Hiroshima (B B B Benny Hit His Head)" leads off with a comic recounting of how Folds fell from a stage in Tokyo-or, as he puts it, how he "busted ass off the front of the stage"-and sat down to play piano while bleeding from the head.

The clever, self-effacing track hints at the irreverence and skill for which Folds became famous-but on the plodding "Frown Song" two tracks later and the flat, needlessly synth-heavy "Free Coffee," Folds sounds like he's phoning it in.

Scattered throughout are some thoroughly tolerable songs-"You Don't Know Me," Folds' endearing duet with Regina Spektor only needs more Regina (don't we all), and "Bitch Went Nuts" almost lives up to the promise of its title. "Cologne," a solid ballad and the album's strongest track, is made even better by his mention of the lovesick astronaut who drove 18 hours wearing adult diapers to pursue her lover.

Overall, Way to Normal is a welcome return to form after 2005's cloying Sounds of Silverman, but there's nothing new here; for good or ill Folds seems unlikely to deviate from his tired-and-true formula anytime soon.