Ben Folds wants to remind you of the glory days. The cover of his latest release, “Ben Folds Live,” features the exact same font as the famous album by his old band and starts off with the same song. The cover art even goes as far as to turn “Five” into “Live” by flipping the F upside down.

“Ben Folds Live” is a sort of commemorative of last spring’s “Ben Folds and a Piano” tour. Folds crossed the country playing unreleased material, songs from his solo album, and yes, all your BFF faves.

The album begins in much the same manner as “Whatever and Ever Amen,” with the rollicking “One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces,” a song that belongs on every geek’s “You Were Mean to Me” mix tape.

This album needed to be made for no other reason than to put to rest the story behind “Brick.” Rumors always existed that the song was about abortion and whether Folds spoke from personal experience. Folds says he hesitated making it official for fear of becoming a political poster boy.

But this album needed to be made, just to prove the rapport he has with his audience. There needed to be a public record of the energy Folds puts in every performance.

“Live” also showcases a few of the tracks on “Rocking the Suburbs,” except the title track and single from the 2001 album. John McCrea of Cake actually shows up to replicate his baritone backing track on “Fred Jones Part 2.”

Folds makes good use of his loyal audience, leading them in the background vocals on “Not The Same,” harmonies and all. Folds might as well direct his loyal legions to drink the Kool-Aid because he has enough power over their minds to turn the Roseland Theater into “a badass horn section” on “Army” from “The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner.” Folds splits the audience into trumpets and saxophones, runs them through their parts and begins the song — and it actually works.

Folds also brings a few rarities into the mix. “One Down” tells of his frustrations as a professional musician.

He also covers Elton John’s “Tiny Dancer,” but his rendition will never compare to the a cappella sing along in the movie “Almost Famous.”

Basically, this album is for the fans. New listeners really wouldn’t have much of a reason to buy this record, and it doesn’t really provide a good introduction to his work. But if you’re the kind of person who needs a version of “Philosophy” where Folds uses every part of the piano except the keys to add an outro to the song, you owe it to the man who’s already given you so much to pick this up.

— Jesse Stensby

In this day and age, the term “pop music” has often come to be thought of as simpleminded and juvenile — jaded in the minds of many a music lover. Whether you credit this paradigm shift to the overexposure of corporate radio pop bands or merely a misunderstood musical evolution, the argument remains that the true pop of yesteryear is exactly that — history.

Koufax is here to challenge the naysayers and disprove this theory. With the release of “Social Life,” the group’s second LP on Vagrant Records, Koufax has taken it upon themselves to announce to the world that timeless pop is not only alive and well, but flourishing.

“Social Life” is an album speckled with tales of growing up. From that of having a Mrs. Robinson in “Adultery” to the age-old story of the problems of teenage drug use in the title track, Koufax is maturing — don’t let the titles fool you. With stronger lyrics, stronger melodies and stronger hooks, “Social Life” is a distinct evolution from the 2000 Heroes & Villains/Vagrant release “It Had To Do With Love.”

In the heavy, keyboard-laced track “Come Back To Life,” vocalist and guitarist Robert Suchan sings, “It was hard to see this young girl die/ but not enough to bring a change in lifestyle.” Lyrics such as these, along with liquid vocals and driving guitar remind Koufax fans why they love the band, while peaking the interest of virgin listeners. As the band states on the album itself, “This is pop of the highest order. Sounds to sing, sway and swill to — here you have 11 cuts total. Eleven cuts like a knife. This is Social Life.”

— Kristen Greiner

Usually an artist releases a Christmas album at a much, much later point in their career. Sometimes, the dreaded holiday record can signal the end of it all. Right, Mariah?

But then Boston rocker Bleu seems to be the kind of person to whom the standard modus operandi isn’t a primary concern.

Bleu made his debut on the scene with a charity album entitled “A Bing Bang Holidang” that featured such Bostonian elite as the lead singers of Mighty Mighty Bosstones and Letters to Cleo.

He soon followed it up with the indie-rock and electronic flavored “Headroom.”

“Redhead” moves Bleu into the next phase of his music.

The album takes commercially viable pop rock and infuses it with enough energy and purpose to win over a goodly portion of the cynics.

“I Won’t Go Hollywood” is an exultant opener that needs the volume turned up to 50 to truly appreciate.

Bleu promises he won’t be the kind of musician who’ll be seen courting Jennifer Love Hewitt once he sells a few records. (ahem, John Mayer?)

On “Somebody Else,” Bleu lets his inner Jeff Buckley shine through. He asks, “Why can’t I be somebody else; somebody who isn’t too cool to believe it’s OK to be just me” as his expressive tenor lets loose and screams into the upper register. The track was also featured on this summer’s “Spider-Man” soundtrack, hopefully giving the proper springboard to someone deserving of success.

There’s no mistaking that the selling point of this album is Bleu’s vocal delivery and passionate singing style. “You Know, I Know, You Know” makes this fact obvious and showcases it along with some soulful backing vocals.

“We’ll Do It All Again” is a romantically epic song that echoes the sentiment any guy who’s ever touched a girl has had.

Bleu says, “You let me in your house and threw me on your yellow couch. You grabbed my head and made me wonder when we’ll do it all again.”

“Watchin’ You Sleep” showcases electronic elements like those on “Headroom” on an undeniably sweet ditty. The sidestep drum tracks sidle along with Bleu’s infectious verses.

“Redhead” could be an album where the worlds of smart rock and radio-friendly collide in a beautiful accident.

The driving “Sayonara” even has an electronic drum hit well-placed over a random appearance of the S word.

These thirteen songs don’t pretend to be the most academic things ever transcribed to paper and plastic, but that’s not what we look to pop music for.

All we need is something memorable to permeate our conscious and hopefully leave something worthwhile behind.

This isn’t a perfect record and we all know that we don’t live in a perfect world.

But if it were, Bleu would at least be one of the next big pop stars taking over the charts.

—Jesse Stensby

Taproot “Welcome” (Atlantic)

compare to: Incubus, Unloco, Static-X

Rarting: 5

Should we praise Ozzy for putting on one of the best traveling festivals of the summer every year, or should we curse him for encouraging an ungodly amount of second-stage nu metal bands to continue releasing albums?

If you didn’t know, Taproot is one of those second-stage nu metal bands and it recently released its sophomore effort, “Welcome.”

The band fits the nu metal bill in the technical sense but at times resembles the more mainstream sounds of Incubus or Hoobastank.

The group incorporates a very structured sound in its songwriting, even in its heaviest songs. The guitar riffs of guitarist Phil Lipscomb are very punctuated and rhythmic on songs like “Poem,” in which vocalist Stephen Richards informs listeners that “this song is a poem to myself/ it helps me to live.”

At times Taproot displays a more emo-ish sound such as on “Art.” Yet on the intro to “Sumtimes” the band unleashes furious metal riffs.

The best summary of the band is probably that it is a little too heavy to appeal to the emo crowd but a little too light to appeal to metal-heads.

Taproot digs itself in a hole at times though when it resorts to the oldest (and most boring) trick in the nu metal book: mellow verses that slowly build up to the climaxing chorus filled with aggressive screaming from the vocalist.

“Dreams” is a perfect example of this redundant method of songwriting.

Taproot makes the effort to do some things to set itself apart from other nu metal acts, namely soul-baring lyrics and tight songwriting in certain places. But it isn’t enough to save “Welcome” from blandness. It’s one of those records that you throw on as background music but never really listen to.

— Trevor Fisher