As we embark on the first weeks of 2026, I’m jumping back 30 years for the next installment of the Decades series. I’ll be writing first about my favorite 1996 albums before highlighting some popular and/or critically acclaimed albums from that year that are new to me.
Kicking things off is everybody’s favorite Canadian alt-rock band.
#10 – Born on a Pirate Ship – Barenaked Ladies
Barenaked Ladies’ third studio album didn’t chart as high or sell as many copies as the releases surrounding it, but it might just be the best of them.
Like all BNL albums, Born on a Pirate Ship combines wry humor and sincere sentimentality with strong melodies and impressive musicianship. Lead singers Steven Page and Ed Robertson deliver love songs, broken heart ballads, and dryly observational tunes with gusto.
Standouts include ‘This is Where it Ends,’ ‘Break Your Heart,’ ‘Shoebox,’ and the rollicking ‘The Old Apartment,’ which became the band’s first top 40 hit in the U.S. Every song here is catchy and inventive, demanding attention to both the music and lyrics.
My favorite might be today’s SOTD, ‘When I Fall,’ a lovely track about a window washer who’s afraid of heights. Whether taken at face value, or as a metaphor for any number of things, this is a haunting and beautiful song.
Pretend I’m not up here, try counting sheep
But the sheep seem to shower off this office tower
Nine-point-eight straight down I can’t stop my knees
I wish I could fly
From this building, from this wall
And if I should try
Would you catch me if I fall?
My hands clench the squeegee, my secular rosary
Hang on to your wallet, hang on to your rings
Can’t look below me, or something will throw me
I curse at the windstorms that October brings
I look in the boardroom; a modern pharaoh’s tomb
I’d gladly swap places, if they care to dive
They’re lined up at the window, peer down into limbo
They’re frightened of jumping, in case they survive
I wish I could step from this scaffold
Onto soft green pastures, shopping malls, or bed
With my family and my pastor and my grandfather who’s dead
Look straight in the mirror, watch it come clearer
I look like a painter, behind all the grease
But paintings creating, and I’m just erasing
A crystal-clear canvas is my masterpiece
I wish I could fly
From this building, from this wall
And if I should try
Would you catch me if I fall?
When I fall
When I fall
When I fall
When I fall
Meet Me In Montauk 