Soundbites: Ben Folds a fake one

» Hotel Lights, "Firecracker People" -- If you don't read further, here's the Cliff Notes: Wilco Folds Five. "Firecracker People" is the second outing from Hotel Lights, best known as former Ben Folds Five drummer Darren Jessee. Hotel Lights is much more restrained than Jessee's best known work -- he cowrote Ben Folds Five's biggest hit "Brick." That's not necessarily a bad thing. "Firecracker People" builds on 2006's "Hotel Lights," with better dynamics and sharper songwriting. Even the slower numbers, such as the haunting title track, up the ante on what "Hotel Lights" promised. Better yet, not everything is slow tempo alt-country -- Jessee picks up the pace on tracks like "Dream State Flying" and "Norina." Best of all is "Amelia Bright," a song originally intended for what would have been the fourth Ben Folds Five effort. A few bootleg copies can be found on various fan sites, a studio cut is pretty much the Ben Folds Five Holy Grail. It's not the Five, but it's nice to have a studio cut after nearly a decade. Whereas Jessee lacks Folds's emotional range, the song still cackles with personality (not to mention that killer hook). The same is pretty much true for the rest of the album. (And, speaking of Ben Folds…)

» Ben Folds, "Way To Normal" (fake) -- Add "marketing genius" to piano rocker Ben Folds's resume. His new album's not due for another month or so, he leaks a bunch of fake tracks (with the same song titles as the real album), sits back and watches the chaos online. The fake leak, available at most torrent sites, contains six tracks recorded in eight hours -- two songs from the actual album and an alternate version of a song on the album. It's also the most exciting batch of songs Folds has released in a long time. On the actual album "Bitch Went Nutz" is about how men and women react differently to break ups. Folds told Rolling Stone the fake version, about a republican ex-frat guy who brings his outspoken liberal girlfriend to a party, is one of his favorite songs he's written. And, it's certainly full of his humor and wit, conspicuously missing from his last few releases. "She's like Jane Fonda and goes and does too many drugs at some lawyer's party and the last line says she shouted 'F*** Dick Cheney' and puked on floor," Folds told Rolling Stone. Minus a lot of bad lyrics, the whole thing, from the hair metal intro on the title track to the absurdity of a "Free Coffee Town," is just a short blast of goofy fun.

» Noah and The Whale- Peaceful, "The World Lays Me Down" -- It's easy to hate on Noah and the Whale. They're just a little too cute, just a little too whimsical, just a little too much like a Wes Anderson soundtrack… and just a little too good. If you can't take a cynical-free listen to, say, a Polyphonic Spree song, pass on this. The British folk-pop quintet's debut album "Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down" is full of uplifting, off-center happy songs (even when they're sad). Take single "5 Years Time" (which you might recognize from that cutesy Saturn commercial). It's about a guy having "fun fun fun" in a relationship, speculating where they'll be in "Five Years Time." Did I mention it kicks off with whistling and a ukulele? Yeah, it's a bit too cute, but try to get it out of your head. Even the morbid "Death By Numbers," where a couple selects a coffin and decomposes together, is optimistic and hopeful, as singer Charlie Fink imagines himself decaying into the soil, then finding new life in "5,000 trees made of me." Even if it's easy to hate Noah and the Whale, it's hard not to love them.