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.
‘Stomach Vs. Heart’ is the bizarre first track of Barenaked Ladies’ bizarre third album, 1996’s Born On a Pirate Ship. This song is a perfect example of the offbeat musical and lyrical sensibility that makes BNL such a love-them-or-hate-them proposition.
Personally, I can’t imagine anybody hating them. But I guess if you are turned off by show-offy, self-aware lyrics and general quirkiness, then you will be turned off by Barenaked Ladies.
Barenaked 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.”
Meet Me In Montauk 