The Good: One truly inspired track, Good vocals, Good instrumentals
The Bad: Nothing terribly original, Very typical for this group, Packaging
The Basics: In a close call, Barenaked Ladies Are Men fell short of being original and clever enough for me to recommend, though every American should listen to "Fun & Games!"
When I started listening to the Barenaked Ladies a few months ago, I was surprised by how they had a vocal and musical quality to them. After all, their big hit in the U.S., "One Week" is hardly a melodic song and when I reviewed Stunt I noted that most of the songs were better displays of the vocal talents of the band. And listening to the Greatest Hits of Barenaked Ladies, it became clear that the group had an ability to make music that covered a wide range of sounds and styles. Despite the fact that - in the U.S. - they've only had one top five hit, which makes some think of them as something of a one-hit wonder (I'm talking mainstream, not the college crowd and not their fanbase!), the group has an ability to make quirky, intriguing music that is well above the norm for pop-rock. On their new album Barenaked Ladies Are Men, the group simply continues in the vein of their previous albums as opposed to pushing the envelope in any strange, new directions.
With sixteen tracks, clocking in at just over an hour, Are Men is a tribute to just how average Barenaked Ladies can be. What I mean by that is that Are Men is a straight out pop-rock album and it is exactly what one would expect when one thinks of the Barenaked Ladies. That means that the subject matters are quirky, original and atypical for pop-rock songs, the vocals are front and center and it's better than your average album. Unfortunately, that's exactly what one expects from the Barenaked Ladies. This album does nothing to challenge that, it does nothing to push the envelope in that regard. In fact, many of these songs could have been on Maroon, there's so little growth as far as pushing where the band has been to where it could be going.
So, no matter how my review turns and makes one think I did not enjoy this album, please keep in mind that this album is above 90% of the schlock that is out there right now. I'm just disappointed because I expect something more from the group. I would like to hear something fresh and new from Barenaked Ladies. In this case, there is less variety than on some of their albums and this is a rather straightforward pop-rock album.
Employing a familiar sound, Barenaked Ladies creates a sound that is very mainstream pop-rock, at least it would be if this were the late 1990s, I don't even know where pop-rock has gone as mainstream has become increasingly pop-rap. The instruments are largely confined to bass, various guitars, drums, and a synthesizer. The group employs a few brass instruments on three or four tracks, but largely the sound is confined to a smaller sound of the quintet.
The music takes very few risks, mostly sticking to a very familiar and safe format where the songs alternate between stanzas and refrains, following one after another in a very predictable way. The refrains are easily recognizable, hummable and generally quite simple. The thing is, the music sounds like other Barenaked Ladies tracks. "Quality" becomes a list of "-ology"'s and when it devolves into that, it sounds remarkably familiar (I wish I could place it!). Regardless, all of the tracks have a rather obvious sense of drums, guitars and keyboards that creates a pop-sound that is very dancable.
I'm not talking freestyle here, but every song on the album seems to have the bassline intent of getting the listener energized and moving. The songs all fall within a pop beat and that means a lot of them have a singsongy quality to them. It's somewhat unfortunate to think of a group that can produce complex and clever lyrics pairing them with a sound that is very simple. While not quite so bad to be the three-chord parody that most garage bands are, Barenaked Ladies does little with their sound other than box it in some and make a pure pop-rock album that does not show any genuine musical growth.
Similarly, the vocals - dominated by Ed Robertson and Steven Page - fall very neatly within the well-established range and predictability of the Barenaked Ladies. Robertson and Page have wonderful baritone voices, but they do not push that on any of the tracks on this album. Indeed, if you've heard the singles "One Week" and "Pinch Me," you'll have the vocal range of the Barenaked Ladies pinned down for this album. They sing well, but there's nothing surprising in their tone or pacing on any of these songs. They capitalize on their strengths in this regard, but do not give the listeners anything truly new.
Similarly, one of the prior strengths of the Barenaked Ladies in the vocal department has been their ability to spit out lyrics with a speed that makes it surprising they could be musical at. Indeed, on earlier albums, part of what makes their work so impressive is that they pack a lot of information into their songs in a minimum amount of time. It's amazing. On Are Men, the group does not sing anything fast, there's no compression that makes it impressive, nothing the listener has to listen to multiple times in order to catch the full meaning or impact of the lines.
That said, the superlative strength by the band is in the lyrics. A number of the songs are safe and poppy in their topics, like "Down To Earth" which simply comments on oddities in society, dating as a young person ("Serendipity") and the joy mean people take in bringing peppy people down ("Angry People"). Sure, "Angry People" is funny - and surprisingly poignant - with lines like "In a square a thousand angry people are / Waving signs in the air / While a million other happy people are / Trying hard not to care / You see, the happy people's biggest problem is / Never fearing the worst / While the rest of us will never sleep until / Your happy bubbles are burst" but it is very typical of the group that brought us the irony of "The Old Apartment." So, the listener is getting more of the same from Barenaked Ladies with Are Men as opposed to anything truly new or different.
That's not to say they do not do that well. As They Might Be Giants devolves into children's music and Weezer proves that it can't make an album longer than forty minutes and say anything they haven't said before, Barenaked Ladies becomes the reigning kings of quirky pop music. Nowhere is the more clear than on "The New Sad," where the group sings with wonderful wit, "Everybody know that happy is the new sad/ So I am going to go and imitate my old dad / And never crack a smile again."
But beyond anything, Are Men seems like an album designed to promote one truly brilliant and engaging song. Like "Empire" on the Dar Williams album My Better Self (reviewed here!), "Fun & Games" tackles the policies of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney with brilliant satire and punch. It's safer for the Barenaked Ladies to assault the policies of the president, but it's refreshing to hear it nonetheless. Unfortunately, with lyrics like ". . .And when it got ugly / We sat around smugly / It was all for a laugh / We knew your sons and daughters would be blown in half . . . " ("Fun & Games") it's unlikely that this song will be played on mainstream radio, despite the distinctly pop sound to it. Moreover, the brilliance of exposing the realities of warfare in the U.S. in song form is made more poignant by frankly singing such things as "There's no need to draft them / You could hear us laugh then / The poor and black all need their room and board / Did I say that out loud? / It was a gag . . ." ("Fun and Games"). It's a shame that our society has come to the point where poking fun at the realities as they exist becomes associated in the collective consciousness with endorsing them, because "Fun and Games" is the most brilliantly direct indictment of the Iraq War and the Bush/Cheney agenda to come down the pike yet.
The brilliance of "Fun & Games" tugged the album up into average territory and made this a razor decision for me. Ultimately, I opted against adding this to my permanent collection and the reason came down to the packaging. Are Men is a bulky cardboard package that comes with velcro to hold it closed. The booklet continues the artwork from the album and it just is clumsy, bulky packaging and I can't stand it. Also, for such a socially conscious group, I found it somewhat awkward (maybe "insulting" is a more appropriate word) that underneath the disc was a list of products the group uses and endorses. It felt very cheap and commercial to me. I support the environmentalism of Barenaked Ladies, but this packaging is just bulky and the artwork didn't grab me.
Is it still above most of the stuff that's out there now? Certainly. And if you don't have any other Barenaked Ladies's albums, Are Men might just be a good investment. It's good, but I've heard better and Barenaked Ladies spoiled me with their quality on other albums so this work just seems at their standard without raising those standards.
The best track is "Fun & Games" which is a knockout, the weak link is the singsong, pure pop "Beautiful" which was just boring.
For other Barenaked Ladies works, please visit my reviews of:
Shoebox (EP)
Rock Spectacle
Maroon
Stunt
Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits 1991 – 2001
5/10
For other music reviews, be sure to look at my Music Review Index Page!
© 2013, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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