As underrated a band as there has been in a long time.
1. Be My Yoko Ono, Gordon (1992). When I was in high school, a friend of mine came home from visiting relatives in St. Louis, and he was giddy about this funny new band over whom his cousins were obsessing. They were silly and witty, and they sang a lot of songs that, well, you tend to enjoy when you’re a nerd in high school. They weren’t Weird Al or Doctor Demento or anything...they were more like They Might Be Giants. They looked like nerds, and they acted silly, and it was a lot of fun. At some point throughout high school and my freshman year at Mizzou, I ended up with all of their albums to that point, and on pretty much any road trip I took, Gordon (their debut album) and Rock Spectacle (one of the more entertaining live albums ever) always got played. They kept me awake and entertained. “Yoko” is one of their silliest songs, as the title would suggest. It showed off both the wit and intelligence of this young band.
2. You Will Be Waiting, Maybe You Should Drive (1994). What hooks hardcore fans is the diversity of BNL's song material. Yes, they’re fun and silly. They’ll always have the “Be My Yoko Ono”’s and “If I Had $1,000,000”’s. But it’s songs like this one that earn them lifelong devotion from fans. This song has never been a live staple of theirs, and it sure wasn’t ever on the radio, but it’s just a perfectly-written little song about pains in a relationship. “I’m so sick of fighting /And that effigy you’re lighting / Looks an awful lot like someone whose name I just can’t quite place / Though you say it’s not supposed to be me / Or any entity / Still through the flames and smoke I see / I recognize that face / But I know, you will be waiting / Oh I know, you will be waiting / Oh I know, you will be waiting / Waiting there for me.” Certain songs hit me hard when they go unnoticed by others. Put this one in that category.
3. The Old Apartment, Born on a Pirate Ship. Their first main radio song in the United States...the first one I ever heard on the radio in Oklahoma, anyway. Songs like this and “Enid” simultaneously display the vulnerability, random loyalty and...immaturity (and slight dark side), of most guys aged 14 to, well, whenever, in relationships.
4. If I Had $1,000,000, Rock Spectacle (1996). One of the better, most accurately descriptive live albums of the ‘90s, Rock Spectacle introduced a lot of people to the exhibition that is a live BNL performance. Skits, improvised songs, lots of silliness, and the omnipresence of more poignant, emotional songs like “What a Good Boy” or “Jane.” However, the touchstone of any BNL show is, of course, the closer, “If I Had $1,000,000.” It’s a fun singalong, it has silly lyrics, and the crowd throws macaroni at the band on the “We wouldn’t have to eat Kraft dinner” line (well, they did before the band requested they stop because, well, it hurt and it got stuck in the instruments).
5. Call and Answer, Stunt (1998). Stunt was the album that changed everything for the status of Barenaked Ladies. “One Week” was far and away their biggest hit, and it was followed by “It’s All Been Done,” which was possibly their second-biggest hit. Plus, there was the irony of the song, “Alcohol,” which basically made fun of frat boys who love getting drunk and trying to get laid ("Alcohol, my permanent accessory / Alcohol, a party-time necessity / Alcohol, alternative to feeling like yourself / O Alcohol, I still drink to your health")...and became one of their most popular live songs as those frat boys, not in on the joke, couldn’t get enough of it. They officially became a household name after Stunt went crazy, and they started playing bigger venues.
But the one song on the album that probably packs the biggest punch was “Call and Answer,” a song about putting together a broken relationship. It starts with this: “I think / It’s getting to the point where we can be ourselves again / It’s getting to the point where we have almost made amends / I think / It’s the getting to the point that is the hardest part.” And it ends with this: “But I’m warning you / Don’t ever do / Those crazy, messed up things that you do / If you ever do / I promise you / I’ll be the first to crucify you / Now it's time to prove that you’ve come back here to rebuild.” This comes across as straight out of the Beatles' playbook. For their first few albums, the Beatles always had a song, likely written by Lennon, that showed a little-explored dark side, songs like "Run for Your Life" or "You Can't Do That," songs that said "I can be cute and funny all you want...but don't cross me." With songs like "The Flag" (from Gordon) and "The Old Apartment" and "Call and Answer," BNL manages to tread lightly over the same territory.
6. Helicopters, Maroon (2000). Maroon is the perfect Barenaked Ladies album. One of the best albums in the last decade. The two aspects of their bipolar personality (silly and serious) are at their highest levels of quality here, and every song is fantastic. If you like silly, it doesn’t get much better than “Pinch Me” or “Too Little Too Late” or “Never Do Anything” or “Humor of the Situation.” If you like serious, try “Baby Seat” or “Helicopters.” If you like both aspects of the BNL personality, then you find that this is the pinnacle of BNL’s career, musically, creatively, emotionally, and lyrically.
God...so many good songs here. I should have written an entire post about just Maroon. “Go Home” is an upbeat directive to a guy whose stubbornness is costing him a relationship: “Let me tell you, if you’re feeling alone / ‘Stead of whining and moanin’ / Just get on the phone / Tell her you’re coming home / If you need her, you should be there / And if you scream in your sleep / Or collapse in a heap / And spontaneously weep / Then you know you’re in deep / If you need her, you should be there / Go home.”
“Baby Seat” is a more intense directive toward a father struggling with maturity: “You left Billy with the kid / And all those selfish things you did / With Billy / You left your hometown in the spring / And turned your back on everything / You thought your life would just go by without a pause to wonder / Don’t be silly / You can’t live your life in the baby seat / You’ve got to stand on your own / Don’t admit defeat.”
“Sell Sell Sell” is a fun song about an almost-over-the-hill actor. “Conventioneers” is about two co-workers hooking up at a convention and not knowing how to act around each other when they get back. The album ends with a light (honestly) song called “Tonight is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel” and a hidden track called “Hidden Sun,” written and sung by Kevin Hearn, the band’s keyboardist (among other instruments), who had contracted leukemia after the recording of Stunt. He was undergoing treatment and was absent through most of the touring for Stunt, but he was feeling good enough to contribute on Maroon.
The roller coaster of sentiment (fun, sad, silly, depressed...and let's face it, this is what life is actually like) reaches its emotional peak, however, with “Helicopters.”
No explanation of the lyrics is needed, seeing as the song was released about a year or so after Columbine; however, the way the lyrics are used in a more universal way, describing anything traumatic that becomes a news sensation and is immediately dropped for the next news sensation, makes the song more poignant. And Stephen Page’s high-and-low vocals hit hard. The best song on Barenaked Ladies’ best album.This is where the helicopters came to take me away
This is where the children used to play
This is only half a mile away from the attack
This is where my life changed in a day
And then it changed back
Buried in the din of rotor noise and close explosions
I do my best to synthesize the sounds and my emotions
This is where the allies bombed the school, they say by mistake
Here nobody takes me for a fool, just for a fake
Later at the hotel bar, the journalists are waiting
I hurry back to my guitar while they're commiseratingAnd I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
Just as soon as we were on the ground, we’re back in the jet
Just another three day foreign tour we'd never forget
It's hard to sympathize with all this devastation
Hopping 'round from site to site like tourists on vacation
And I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
I can't help anyone cause everyone's so cold
Everyone's so skeptical of everything they're told
And even I get sick of needing to be sold
Though it's only half a month away, the media's gone
An entertaining scandal broke today, but I can't move on
I'm haunted by my story and I do my best to tell it
Can't even give this stuff away, why would I sell it
Everybody's laughing, while at me they point a finger
A world that loves its irony must hate the protest singer
So I'll be leaving soon
I'll be leaving soon
7. Get In Line, All Their Greatest Hits, 1991-2001 (2001). Further proof that BNL can make a catchy, fun, extremely melodic song in their sleep. This is basically a throwaway song, pulling the old “Add some new material to a band’s greatest hits, so the hardcore fans will want to buy it even though they own all the albums already” trick, but it’s good. And sadly, it makes All Their Greatest Hits worth getting. Then again, if I’d had iTunes at the time, I wouldn’t have had to fall for their trick, now would I?
8. Upside Down, Everything to Everyone (2003). After taking some time off from the physical toll of lots of touring and the emotional and mental toll of Hearn’s battle with leukemia and the fact that they’d been together nonstop for going on 15 years, the band joined to record E2E. All band members contributed to the writing process, more than in albums past, and the result was a wider variety of sounds than what was seen on Maroon or Stunt. The results were also mixed. I never got into songs like “Maybe Katie” or “Celebrity” or “Another Postcard” or “Shopping,” but there are still plenty of highlights. After all, good bands’ worst albums are still pretty damn good. With a fun beat and interesting time signature, “Upside Down” is probably the most indicative song of the album as a whole.
I almost selected “War On Drugs” for this slot, but I wanted something more upbeat, and honestly...“War On Drugs” is about the saddest song I’ve ever heard (other than “The Drugs Don’t Work,” anyway).
In the dream I refuse to haveJust an amazing song, but it’s just too damn sad for this list. So “Upside Down” it is.
She falls asleep in a lukewarm bath
We're left to deal with the aftermath again
On behalf of humanity
I will fight for your sanity
How profound such profanity can be
Won't it be dull when we rid ourselves
Of all these demons haunting us
To keep us company
Won't it be odd to be happy like we
Always thought we're supposed to feel
But never seem to be
Near where I live there's a viaduct
Where people jump when they're out of luck
Raining down on the cars and trucks below
They've put a net there to catch their fall
Like it'll stop anyone at all
What they don't know is when nature calls, you go
They say that Jesus and mental health
Are just for those who can help themselves
But what good is that when you live in hell on earth?
9. God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (w/Sarah McLaughlin), Barenaked for the Holidays (2004). I’m not even remotely a fan of Christmas music. It was the worst part about working weekends at Barnes & Noble...8 hours of crap Christmas music every shift for a month each year. However, I discovered two things I could stand—Vince Guaraldi’s Charlie Brown Christmas album, and this one song from BNL’s holiday album. The harmonies, instrumentation, and arrangement of a song you’ve heard a million times is the perfect representation of what Barenaked Ladies can be as pop artists. I guess it’s the exception that proves the rule about Christmas songs, I guess.
10. Vanishing, Barenaked Ladies Are Me (2006). And finally, we reach last year's Barenaked Ladies Are Me. Like E2E, Are Me was an extremely collaborative process; Ed Robertson and Stephen Page (the band’s primary writers) unleashed a wealth of songs into the process as always, but Kevin Hearn added some, and bassist Jim Creegan made probably his biggest contribution to the writing process since Born on a Pirate Ship. The result was well over useable 20 songs (actually, the writeup for this album on Wikipedia is quite good if you want more details). The band took advantage of emerging web capabilities (and a friendly, flexible record label) to release lots of different versions of the album in different forms. At your local music store, you can buy a 13-song version of Are Me, followed by (on February 7) a 12-song follow up called Barenaked Ladies Are Men. Online, you can download the mega-27-song version, as well (which is what I did). Along with this, they took fan interactivity to an impressive level, unleashing a “remix” contest in which fans could download individual tracks and mix them themselves; also, if you take a look at their website, they’re currently showing the winner of a user-submitted video contest for the song “Wind It Up.” They've been on the forefront of music-computer technology for a while now.
What you get from such an expansive work like Are Me is a) a lot of songs that are of exactly the style you expect from BNL, and b) a lot of creative departures. One of those departures is a Kevin Hearn contribution (he wrote and sang it) called “Vanishing.” “Isn’t that the necklace he found behind your ear? / He’s floating upside-down below a chandelier / Wishing he had the power to make you reappear / He’s a magician / Hoping, wishing / And you’re the one vanishing.” This isn’t anything groundbreakingly creative, but it doesn’t have to be that to be a great song, and this pretty quaint, quiet number is one of my favorites on the album so far. Plus, it shows that the more open songwriting process that BNL has undertaken recently has both gotten better and proven that there’s plenty of energy left in this band. Few bands express everything in the spectrum of song-worthy emotions quite as well as Barenaked Ladies, so as they creep toward their third decade together, here's to hoping they keep it up.
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