CD: Barenaked Ladies, "Barenaked Ladies Are Me"

Barenaked Ladies are certainly not me, even if their latest record, Barenaked Lades Are Me, claims to be. But from their universal (yet personal) lovesick struggles, I wouldn't mind if they were. Besides, the Canadians can actually write music, and they can play it too. Though one line says "I'm a tired old metaphor," their lines are slick: their "villainous imagination" leads to rhymes like "I need to love you like a secret list/I need to love you until you don't exist." A bunch of songs are about vanishing within (or because of) love, but Barenaked Ladies hasn't faded at all over the years. They've just shifted their emphasis, mellowed out, and decided to take things easier. To the fans looking for comic gems, those lines are few and far between ("I can't believe that you'd believe that I would fake it/wait--unless you count the things I said when we were naked"), and the few jokey songs like "Bank Job" (about a heist gone badly) don't have the punchy rhythms of previous hits. The only issue is that while the group seems to have deepened their sound with tracks like "Maybe You're Right," they've also produced a bunch of humdrum material, like "Vanishing," which lives up to its name but not the promising metaphor of magic ("With a wave of a wand/he'll pull your heartstrings").

The same thing happens to a bunch of songs with good lyrics, too. "Rule the World with Love" gets caught in the leaden beat, and even a medley of strings can't save it. The same doesn't go for "Sound of Your Voice," which avoids a similar fate by riffing on voice and guitar: this is a rock group that can sing really well. And their words are really entertaining: from the simple sweetness of the sleeper hit, "Adrift" ("The onion rings, the phone makes me cry/something isn't right/like the Deep Blue without the Great White") to the quick-stepping strength of the best song, "Wind It Up," which sums up the modern classicism of the group: "Throw your sticks and stones/throw your mobile phone." Also, somewhere in there, perhaps with the trick combinations of instruments (like mandolin and double bass), they've managed to evoke the warm feelings of home, as on "Home."

The banjo has influenced this newest album a lot, from actual tracks to acoustic rhythms in others (like "Easy"). The mellow sound of Coldplay shows up in the background of tracks like "Maybe You're Right" and "Take It Back," but BNL are less about crooning and more about a direct playfulness. The album's subtle and the music's effusive: this slow, easy-to-listen-to rock is suddenly under your skin. And you know what? If a group still does that after fifteen years, they are me (or at least for me).

[First posted to Silent Uproar on 1/27]