Music should be unafraid.

There is no place in rock `n’ roll for holding back, and Ben Folds is the spokesman for this motto.

Throughout his career and now after the divorce of his band-Ben Folds Five-Folds has dabbled in virtually every genre and era of music in order to keep his piano-driven sound fresh.

Now that Folds is out there on his second solo attempt, he’s showing that he is much more mature and honest than anyone could have guessed.

Rockin’ The Suburbs is erasing the line between straight up rock and get-a-headache-from-bobbing-your-head pop.

The title track is a mix of rock, rap, and cheese-techno with punk lyrics such as, “I’m pissed off but I’m too polite/ gonna cuss on the mic tonight.” The song ends in a fit of aggression with a Rage Against the Machine-like banter of “y’all don’t know what it’s like, being male, middle class and white.”

But let’s back up, say, six years. Ben Folds Five was really a trio (Ben Folds Three would have sounded weird) consisting of Folds on the piano, Darren Jesse on bass and Robert Sledge on drums.

The band gained fame for their electrified performances, which were highlighted by Fold’s brilliant piano playing and knock-out, three-part vocal harmonies. Fold’s narrative songwriting was familiar, unashamed and witty. His ballads were love songs and tall tales told by a regular guy.

Rockin’ The Suburbs is a throw back to those days, minus the three-part harmony. Folds is not afraid to throw in `70s funk, `80s digital melodies and a dash of cheesiness, and that is just the beginning of the diversity found on this album.

He spans the musical spectrum from the unplugged sequel to “Cigarette”, “Fred Jones Pt. 2,” to a vaudeville patter midway through the album, to a broadway musical number about drug abuse.

Folds has kept true to his story telling style of writing and his patented use of the extremely high range of his vocals that are reminiscent of Ben Folds Five. Simultaneously he has broken far away from his first solo album, Fear of Pop which was more techno-pop meets spoken word than rock `n’ roll. Folds is not afraid of writing complex, catchy, and often times cheesy tunes because that is the kind of music that he wants to make.

He does it with a child-like extravagance that puts him in control of where the listener is taken. Each song tells a story, and the stories are complied in this album to tell part of the story of his life.

Such an intimate story through an often farcical medium of pop-rock takes guts, and that is exactly what Ben Folds has.