Barenaked Fun

It’s a testament to Barenaked Ladies’ talent and charisma that they’ve created fun, quirky music for over sixteen years without being pigeonholed as a novelty act. They’ve mastered the ability to be droll, a quality best illustrated in their latest CDs, the bittersweet Barenaked Ladies are Me (BLAM) and the soon-to-be-released All New Revue-Live at the Glenn Gould Studio (a live version of BLAM). Both are mature and thoughtful albums that sound better with each listen. They’re the band’s first independent releases since they left Reprise Records and the first since outgrowing their customary “naked track” (the entire band goes bare for the recording). The quirkiness is still there; it’s just couched within songs of failure and diffused sadness.The tracks are mostly genteel, guitar-driven melancholic stories like the folksy post-breakup “Adrift,” which sets the tone with sweet-sounding vocals and strumming banjo. The endearing “Bank Job” is a comical tale about failure, a bank heist foiled by nuns who were “like zebras/they had us confused.” The happy-go-lucky “Bull In a China Shop” is about self-loathing. Horns and an infectious beat accompany the downtrodden lyrics “
I’m a walking advertisement for everything I never meant/And everything I never meant to be.” The rock-tinged “Wind It Up” is a great, angry breakup song with panache. The guitar solo sticks out among the introspective, harmonic tracks, and the wit is enviable: “I was a baby when I learned to suck/But you have raised it to an art form.”


Even without one pop-friendly single displaying the rapid-fire word play of Barenaked Ladies’ previous outings, their sense of humor on both Barenaked Ladies are Me and All New Revue-Live at the Glenn Gould Studio is still intact. The sad songs are amusing and the happy ones are poignant. Of course, the levity of a naked track couldn’t hurt.