Piano Pop

There was a time when this was my favourite type of music. Most of what I liked, at one stage, seemed to fit into this category. All the better if the male artist had a distinctive or unusual voice. Anyway, here are several favourites from my piano pop collection.

1. Ben Folds Five. Key albums: Ben Folds Five, Whatever and Ever Amen, The Unauthorised Biography of Reinhold Messner
A bass, a drum kit and of course a piano played by the incredibly talented Ben Folds. And NO guitar, apart from on Emaline which was left off their eponymous album apparently because of this. Energetic, funny, beautiful, varied and original. Listen to the piano solo at the end of Philosophy where he lapses into Rhapsody in Blue.

2. The Whitlams. Key albums: Eternal Nightcap, Love This City.
I haven't really been interested in the Whitlams since Love This City. I do have access to their other albums but these are the best. Tim Freedman is another talented pianist. After Stevie Plunder died he changed the entire band line up on a regular basis but he has always been the centrepiece. I also love the song Gough and some of the stuff on Undeniably.

3. Tori Amos. Key albums: Under the Pink, Little Earthquakes.
If you haven't heard Tori Amos's version of Smells Like Teen Spirit... well, you should. It's an amazing reinvention of the song that manages to make it into something entirely new. The best piano stuff comes on Cornflake Girl, Silent All These Years and probably most of her other songs. I know she's been quite prolific but these two albums are favourites from her. I haven't been able to get into the others in the same way- they seem to lack consistency.