Album Review - Barenaked Ladies - Barenaked Ladies Are Me

There always have been both campy and serious aspects to Barenaked
Ladies' music, and its material has fared best whenever these opposing
concepts have remained in equilibrium. The problem the band
increasingly has faced, however, is that the more it has striven for
maturity, the more its clownish behavior has felt forced. Add to this
the notions that its audience has begun to outgrow its oddball lyrics
and goofy antics as well as that it has become fashionable to deride
Barenaked Ladies for the same reasons that it once was beloved, and
the makings for a full-scale implosion are in place. This is precisely
what occurred when the ensemble issued its 2003 endeavor Everything to
Everyone. Although the title of the set poked fun at the band's
marketing approach, and its contents weren't substantively different
from what had been successful in the past, the album largely was met
with a general sense of apathy by critics and fans alike. With the
release of Barenaked for the Holidays, the Canadian outfit opted to
regroup by taking more control over its music, and in opening its
latest outing Barenaked Ladies Are Me with the gentle, melancholy
refrains of Adrift, the group further has signaled that it wants to be
taken more seriously.

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