Ben Folds, the lead singer, piano player and namesake of the now-defunct Ben Folds Five, has recorded a solo album of his signature power pop. The album, “Rockin? the Suburbs,” is due out today, and the sound is as much Ben Folds as it is not Ben Folds Five.

The Five (Ben Folds, Robert Sledge on drums and Darren Jesse on bass) hit it big in the late 1990s with the morose abortion song “Brick,” but the majority of their music was harmony-laced, fast-paced piano rock driven by fuzzed-out bass lines and energetic drum beats.

Without his musical cohorts, Folds? songs are not as hard-driven, but they?re just as catchy and well written as his previous work. Folds sings and plays most of the instrumental parts on his own, with backup musicians supporting on a few tracks.

The songs range from the worried musings of “Annie Waits” to the apologetic, gentle “Good Morning Son,” and the wistful “Fred Jones Part 2.” The album picks up the pace with the not-quite bitter “Gone” and the guitar-driven title track, which mocks every angry white rock artist of the last half-decade with lines such as “ya?ll don?t know what it?s like/being male, middle class and white.”

As a solo artist, Folds has composed an album of piano pop songs that are just as catchy and memorable as any he did with Ben Folds Five.