Monthly Archives: July 2009

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Song of the Day #353: ‘Bull in a China Shop’ – Barenaked Ladies

aremeIt’s a shame when a great band goes out not with a bang but a whimper. Some, including the band itself, would argue that they have many albums left to give, but I consider 2006’s Barenaked Ladies Are Me their final proper release because (cue ‘Taps’) Steven Page subsequently left the band.

That’s like Paul McCartney leaving The Beatles, or Adam Schlesinger leaving Fountains of Wayne (different ends of the spectrum there in terms of impact, sure, but the same thing creatively speaking). Page is the co-writer of almost every Barenaked Ladies song and the lead singer of most of them. How does a band lose somebody like that and continue to be the same band? It doesn’t. Perhaps they’ll continue to make great music on the back of Ed Robertson, who wrote all of those great songs with Page, but it won’t be the Barenaked Ladies I’ve loved over the years.

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Song of the Day #352: ‘War on Drugs’ – Barenaked Ladies

everythingI’m suspending this week’s Motown Weekend in order to finish off Barenaked Ladies theme week. The Motown clips will return next Saturday.

The band’s sixth studio album, 2003’s Everything to Everyone, was a disappointment relative to their previous efforts, in terms of both sales and quality. That’s not to say it’s a bad album by any means… it just feels a bit paint-by-numbers.

One problem that creeps into bands with one or two principal songwriters is the creative frustration of the rest of the band, leading to the inevitable inclusion of those band members in the songwriting process.

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Song of the Day #351: ‘Conventioneers’ – Barenaked Ladies

maroonTwo years after their success with Stunt, Barenaked Ladies released another album that reached platinum status in the U.S., 2000’s Maroon. The album follows the same template as Stunt, boasting tight production and a radio-friendly set of ballads and mid-tempo rockers. The first single, ‘Pinch Me,’ received a lot of airplay, though not nearly as much as ‘One Week.’

The song on Maroon I’ve always been most drawn to is ‘Conventioneers,’ a sordid tale of two co-workers who have an ill-advised affair while on a business trip. I love the combination of the very modern corporate hook-up story told against the backdrop of this old-fashioned jazz lounge music.

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Song of the Day #350: ‘Light Up My Room’ – Barenaked Ladies

stuntAnd then they hit it big. Big in relative terms, anyway, although selling 4 million copies of an album (particularly these days) is no small feat.

The band’s fourth album, Stunt, reached those heights courtesy of its infectious first single, ‘One Week.’ Even those of you who’ve never heard a BNL album all the way through have certainly heard this song. “It’s been one week since you looked at me… cocked your head to the side and said ‘I’m angry.'” You know it. One of the finest examples of white boy pop rap I’ve ever heard (a category that includes such tunes as R.E.M.’s ‘It’s the End of the World as We Know It (and I Feel Fine),’ Billy Joel’s ‘We Didn’t Start the Fire’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’).

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Song of the Day #349: ‘The Old Apartment’ – Barenaked Ladies

pirateshipBarenaked Ladies’ third album, Born on a Pirate Ship, is an eclectic mix of avant garde pop, arena rock and power ballads. I’m tempted to call it their best album, though a few left-field tracks toward the middle knock it down a peg. It’s an album without any real hits (or singles, for that matter) but it contains several fan favorites.

Among those is ‘When I Fall,’ a poignant existential tune told from the perspective of a window washer. It works splendidly whether you take it literally or as a metaphor, or a little bit of both. One track I love is titled ‘I Know’ and opens with this delicious one-liner: “I don’t buy everything I read… I haven’t even read everything I’ve bought.”

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