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.
‘Baby Seat’ is a track from Barenaked Ladies’ 2000 album Maroon, their fifth record and the last to go platinum. The band had a pretty rapid decline following five straight hits between ’92 and ’00. They were a 90s act, through and through.
‘Baby Seat’ has an interesting lyric. The first verse and chorus seem to be about a woman who abandoned her child and hoped to sail through life without taking responsibility. Pretty straightforward.
Continuing my look at 1994, first by counting down my own top ten albums of that year.
#9 – Maybe You Should Drive – Barenaked Ladies
This was the second album by one of my favorite 90s alternative rock bands. It’s a bit dismissive to call BNL a 90s act, I suppose, given that they have consistently recorded in the two decades since, but with very few exceptions, everything I like by the band came out on their first five albums.
Not counting today, I’ve posted 26 Barenaked Ladies songs on the blog, a combination of Random Weekend selections and my own picks. And yet only one of those tracks is from the band’s most popular album, 1998’s Stunt.
In addition to being their top-selling album (quadruple platinum in both the United States and their native Canada), Stunt is one of their best. It blends their signature whimsy with several lovely ballads and ties it all together with their best production quality to that point.
The 2000 album Maroon turned out to be peak Barenaked Ladies. At the time, the album felt like a more than worthy successor to the 1998 breakthrough album Stunt, and in my view, heralded many years of great material to come.
To be fair, the band’s next few albums contain their share of good songs. But signs of creative stagnation and tension within the band were already evident on 2003’s Everything to Everyone, the release immediately following this one.
Meet Me In Montauk 