Artist: Barenaked Ladies
Label: EMI Records
Release: 2010
Runtime: 50.08
Rating: 3/5
Barenaked Laides are a Canadian success story! The indie rockers are dropping their new album All In Good Time”, and they’re doing it without founding member Steven Page! Hello? Yep, really! As always, they serve up a bunch of proper Beatles-rounded little tunes with a sharply contrasting guitar imprint, basically hitting the notes of the earlier studio albums that brought them big success in Canada and the US. This time, though, Page’s absence gets in the way a bit, because his departure snapped the bond that held together the creative and driving core of the band, the founding duo of Ed Robertson and Steven Page. Barenaked Ladies, who were always known for a great knack for a sophisticated, unobtrusive dose of humor and goofing around, which they used to arm their otherwise trivial song designs, stay in the shadow of the energy of their earlier work this time. “All In Good Time” is more a manifesto of mourning for the runaway Page than a document proving that the band held its head high, got over his exit and can carry on down the musical road without him.
Barenaked Ladies didn’t even try to find a new vocalist to fill Page’s spot. The vocal duties on songs not sung by Robertson were split among the rest of the members. Turns out nobody comes close to the charisma of Page’s approach.
Barenaked Ladies stay awfully careful this time too. They make sure not to cross the line where the masses would peg them as naughty boys who love to wind up the “high and mighty” and fart out loud at the shared table during meals. The songs, or rather little songlets, gently scratch at your ears, with no irritating rocker escapades that would even hint at breaking out of, or losing control over, the band’s long-settled, clearly defined sonic statement.
The album opens with the teary You Run Away, which, childishly unexpected, catches you off guard with R.E.M.-style pathos, thanks to the melody of the verses and Ed Robertson’s vocal. An approach that moves the band closer to the energy of fashionable ballad trends from bands à la Coldplay pushes away the feeling that we’ve got a band with its own recognizable magic and essence in front of us. Luckily, right after it the excellent, rock-sharpened Summertime makes up for the sins, with the trademark of crafted, melodically polished lead motifs intact. And yet the mellow Another Heartbreak takes the album back to the start (the opener). And that’s the thing about this album. It swings between warm and cold. So it’s lukewarm. And this is exactly where Steven Page’s absence counts. Without him Barenaked Ladies are becoming too similar to countless other indie rock bands. The cabaret-style “stumbling” Four Seconds again tries to bring back that combination of rock triviality disguised as a coat of genuine goofing-around spirit, but it doesn’t measure up to what an older song like The Old Apartment conjures.
Despite the feeling that on “All In Good Time” the band is currently struggling to find the right direction without Steven Page, the album still delivers the arrangement quality you’d expect. On The Lookout and Every Subway Car prove that the quartet hasn’t lost its inspiration for crafting seductive rock hooks aimed at the majority (read: less demanding ears). The songwriting bond is present throughout, smelling retro, in the school of The Beatles.
Otherwise, there’s no arguing with the full, tight production, which generates a great spread of naturally created color in the sonic collages. The only trouble is that, for all the band’s effort, an aftertaste lingers that with Page everything would work a whole lot more convincingly and authentically in chasing the energy of past works. Sticking to the same track without Page has shown where Barenaked Ladies can be vulnerable. The “Cheap Trick of indie rock” are dancing this time over the softer notes of their acquired pedigree of goofball nature. The feeling the album gives is that Barenaked Ladies have lost their sense of direction and that Page was always the one who breathed into the music the genuine stamp of sincerity and the band’s clearly recognizable artistic core. This time it’s slightly blurred, but not entirely denied. The album is quality and worth a spin for all true indie rock fans, but it’s hard to match up to the band’s past character and work. We’ll see what the future brings. Will Page return, will Barenaked Ladies stop wandering in the dark and find the way out of the labyrinth, or will they, with further records, become more and more like the other alternative rock bands that MTV hunts down and loves. Whining really doesn’t belong in the band’s sentiment!
Lineup
Ed Robertson – vocals, guitar, bass guitar, percussion, drums, synthesizer, backing vocals
Kevin Hearn – vocals, piano, synthesizer, guitar, mandolin, banjo, accordion, backing vocals
Jim Creeggan – vocals, bass guitar, guitar, cello, piano, string arrangements, backing vocals
Tyler Stewart – drums, percussion, backing vocals
Production
Michael Phillip Wojewoda
Track list
1. You Run Away (4:22)
2. Summertime (3:51)
3. Another Heartbreak (3:23)
4. Four Seconds (2:44)
5. On The Lookout (3:31)
6. Ordinary (4:09)
7. I Have Learned (3:06)
8. Every Subway Car (3:49)
9. Jerome (3:22)
10. How Long (3:39)
11. Golden Boy (3:13)
12. I Saw It (3:50)
13. The Love We’re In (2:42)
14. Watching The Northern Lights (4:27)
50:08
