Barenaked Ladies Are Me - REVIEWED!

Mood at present - Educational and critical





As promised, the new BNL CD review by yours truly.

First of all, I got the deluxe version - a whole extra CD came with it and it double the amount of music for maybe 5 bucks extra, so its well worth it. As for the album itself? It's... well, on the whole, I liked it. Let's say that right away.

While it's very remenicent of Born on a Pirateship in some senses - ex: Jim and Kevin are singing a couple of songs on this one and it has a whole new direction from the older stuff in HOW it's done - it still holds onto a lot of the Stunt sound insofar that its got alot of that organ beeping stuff, and other occasional weirdness. This so-called "weirdness", of course, is only to us "purists" who often times can't get past ourselves enough to hear the good in the new. To quote a good buddy of mine and fellow BNL freak Bones:

"It's true, we're totally the guys Steve was warning himself about on Box Set. I try to overcome that though, but they really have gotten pop-y."

Like I said, though, the lyrics and songs (specifically Bank Job and Adrift) caught my attention right away - which is a given since they're the first songs on the album. The point is that they caught my attention and kept it. I was groovin' out to it pretty much all the way through.

I love the infectiousness of their first single Easy, I want to say that RIGHT away. I can't stop listening to it. I hope it stays that way.

I also really love the inclusion of more accordion, banjo, and other different instruments and making it WORK some how (just like the good ol' days), the bold commentary found in some songs (at least I picked it up in Rule the World with Love and Fun & Games), the cool folky power chords of Wind it Up, the new addition of horns in the background of some tunes (Bull in a China Shop and Something You'll Never Find)... Heck, sometimes there's almost a Ska feel to some of it! What with all the intermixing of brass and rock/folk to make a pop-ish sound -especially when the horns or how they sing together in chirpish choruses behind the lyrics. Like I said to Bones: "It's different, but in a good way."

Yeah, so I like it. Though, as with Stunt or Maroon or (Heavens...) Everything to Everyone, it takes a wee bit of adjustment for some since some tunes are just odd. Or, ironically for me to say, preachy. Now, I understand that the boys want to make more points about the things around them. Cripes, if they didn't I wouldn't listen to them. I mean, they've been doing it since Gordon with stuff like New Kid on the Block (in terms of preachy) or King of Bedside Manor (the odd), to name but a few.

The important thing to say though is that I will say the good tunes outweigh the "Uh... okayyy" on this album. Even the purists of the old stuff will appreciate the new stuff. Between the Steve ballads (Home and The New Sad), the Ed quirky quick ones (One and Only, Easy, and Down to Earth), Jim's differentness on his, and Kevin's delicateness and poetry (love Serendipity), the album comes out really well. I really like that each of the boys that sing have a moment to shine as lead vocals on this album - well, the DELUXE version, anyway. (Too bad Tyler doesn't - I'd love to hear what he'd come up with!)

So, here's some free advertizing - GO BUY THE CD. Or download it. But at LEAST download it from THEM and PAY for the damn thing, cause these guys are some of the few that know what it means to let the fans have their music and support the whole advent of downloading/sharing music.