Required listening

Ben Folds, Rockin' the Suburbs

This is what pop music sounds like.

Step 1: Find album buried in colored socks drawer. Step 2: Dust album off. Step 3: Love. If you don't have it, rush to your computer and download it two days ago. It's that good. The harmonies on "Gone" and "Not the Same" are transcendent. "Fred Jones, Pt. 2" is pure sun-faded Chuck Taylor melancholy (sigh). And the chorus to "Losing Lisa" sounds like suburban fist pumping coming from your parents' 2001 Ford Explorer while you buy beers from your friend's brother in a Sentry parking lot (gasp). This album could have been written in 1994 or 2007, and therein lies a good deal of its charm.

You listen. You enjoy.