After their stint as a two-hit-wonder in the '90s with "One Week" and "If I had $1000000," Barenaked Ladies seemed to disappear from the face of the earth, occasionally releasing a song that fell into the category of "attempt for a once-popular group to resurrect former glory."
Their new CD, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, has made a departure from the quirky alternative style that made them unique and has ventured down the oft-traveled path of conformity. As a consequence, the album sounds more like a soundtrack for a romantic comedy, with dramatic conflict and swooping climaxes, rather than a CD by the oddball rock group the Ladies used to be.
The new CD is the 15-year-old group's return from the green-and-red abyss that is the holiday record -- their appropriately titled 2004 album, Barenaked for the Holidays.
The fourth track on Barenaked Ladies Are Me and the first single, "Easy," exemplifies the core of the CD: Easy singalongs, easy tunes, easy listening. Due to this ease factor, much of the record is more than bearable, but some of their sappier numbers, including "Home" and "Sound of Your Voice" border on intolerable with melancholy melodies that any adolescent girl would deem appropriate to be her life's soundtrack. Lame lyrics such as "What could I do to call you / What could I do to call this home?" are inexcusable given the Ladies's history. (Remember "Chickity China the Chinese chicken / You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin'"?)
That's not to say that the CD is bad; in fact, the biggest flaw (aside from the lack of upbeat, fast-moving songs) is that the Ladies have so drastically changed their sound and style from their original formula for success. This CD of predominantly ballads takes a sharp turn from the obscure, off-the-beaten-track classics for which the Ladies were famous.
The two bonus tracks ("Quality" and "Another Spin") offer more typical Barenaked Ladies sounds and lyrics, though they, too, resonate with the distinct feel of a group that has sold out.
That said, Barenaked Ladies Are Me, taken at face value and independent of the group's past, is decently good. It's not anything profound or life-changing, but it's perfect for mellow background music.
Especially noteworthy are "Everything Had Changed," a relatively upbeat, western ditty, and "Maybe You're Right," which sounds remarkably like a mix of Coldplay and the "Rent" soundtrack.
Though Barenaked Ladies Are Me is filled with tracks that are a step away from Barenaked Ladies' original style and leaps toward a more mainstream pop culture structure, the new CD works as an easy-on-the-ears collection of loaded melodies and pseudo-deep lyrics -- an unfortunate, significant digression from the Ladies of old.
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