2. Barenaked Ladies - Everything To Everyone (2003)

"Would anybody hear me/if I shed the irony?" Ed Robertson asks halfway through BNL's sixth album and it's a good question. To the casual observer it may seem that BNL have just started to struggle against their goofy image, which they first acquired back in the early '90s with If I Had a Million Dollars, and was galvanized by the smash One Week.

But it's been going on much longer than that. Their second album, Maybe I Should Drive, was not exactly what fans of Be My Yoko Ono were expecting. There were funny/clever songs like Alternative Girlfriend and A, but there was also seriousness creeping in on a song like You Will Be Waiting. Their next big hit, The Old Apartment, seemed funny but was really about desperate nostalgia. If I Fall and Break Your Heart were also straight out affecting. And so it has continued through their massive success (Stunt) and follow-up (Maroon) with the serious songs beginning to outnumber the funny ones.

When I saw them in concert in 2001, it was the only time I've ever really wished to be a rock and roll star, and felt it could have actually been possible. They had a combination of nerdiness and coolness, seriousness and humor that I feel is present in almost all of us, and that too many bands ignore.

This record continues their balancing act. On one hand we've got their stupidest song yet, Another Postcard, which is all about receiving postcards with pictures of monkeys on them. Maybe it was inspired by true events, but given the literal minds of some of their fans (who throw Mac and Cheese and boxer shorts on stage because of certain lyrics), it just seems to be asking for trouble. It also seems like a song that never needed to be written. On the other end of the spectrum there's War On Drugs, a completely bracing look at unhappiness and self-destruction.

The rest of the songs fall somewhere in between. Shopping is an '80s new wave homage that could be ironic or not. For You is countryish and thoughtful. At first, Unfinished seems like the most disposable song on the album and then it breaks into a full out Beach Boys tribute. In fact, there's no song here I would get rid of, even Another Postcard, because we know that to BNL, the coexistence of the stupid and the sublime is the most important thing.

Rating: B+
Fave Song: Take It Outside

Note: The edition I bought has three acoustic versions of different album tracks tacked on. I could live without them.

Comments

REO Speedwagon: R.E.O. Speedwagon (1971)

REO Speedwagon got its start in the late 1960s on the campus of the University of Illinois in Champaign/Urbana. The band grew out of a friendship between a students Neal Doughty (piano/keyboard) and Alan Gratzer (drums). Joining up with a couple of other musicians, they took the name R.E.O. Speedwagon. It wasn't long before they started getting gigs at parties and bars, doing covers of the hits of the day. The band cycled through several players in its first three years, with Gratzer and Doughty as the only constants. One-by-one they added the members that would form the first "official" lineup: singer Terry Luttrell in early 1968, bassist Gregg Philbin later that summer, and guitarist Gary Richrath at the end of 1970. Richrath was a native of Peoria, 90 miles northwest of Champaign, and had essentially stalked the band until they let him join. It was a good move, as he not only an accomplished guitarist, but also a songwriter. With Richrath the band ascended to the n...

Stuck, or Obsession Cessastion

You may have noticed that things have slowed down around here. I had the summer off from teaching, and I spent it with my 7 month-old son. I gave myself permission to make this blog less of a priority. Well, "less of a priority" is putting it lightly. Initially, I considered an abrupt retirement. But then I reconsidered. Maybe the proximity to Brett Favre is causing this. If you're a long time reader, this is probably not all that surprising to you. Since 2007, it has become an annual ritual for me to soul-search about my waning interest in music. First I blamed an inability to express myself and a lack of quality music . Then in 2008 I cited new technology and the death of the album . Last year I wrote about how my changing life priorities hindered my ability to seek out new music. I've done a lot of thinking about it this summer and in truth I believe this was all just dancing around the issue, a slow realization of something I didn't want to admit to myse...

Billy Joel: Greatest Hits, Volumes I and II (1985)

As you may know, I'm something of a connoisseur of compilations. I have three guidelines that I like my greatest hits to follow, though I am open to these rules being disregarded in certain cases. It's not an exact science. Billy Joel's 1985 Greatest Hits Volumes I and II (an odd title for a set that was never sold separately) is proof of that. It mostly follows the rules. The songs are in chronological order. There are no remixes, just a couple of single edits; there are two live songs, but those were actually were the versions that charted. And there are two new songs - we'll get to them eventually - but both ended up in the Top 40, so in retrospect that was a good decision. My mom bought the double LP when it came out and then dubbed it to a tape that lived in her car for at least three years. It and An Innocent Man were part of the soundtrack of the second half of my first decade of life. So I have a hard time criticizing something so ingrained in my consciousne...

3 Minutes, 49 Seconds

Search This Blog