Photo from Youtube.com

By Louis James Marrone
Contributing writer

If you have seen the movie “American Pie” or seen the show “The Big Bang Theory,” then you have heard the Barenaked Ladies. The Canadian folk-rock act has come through with some decent, safe and broadly appealing content.

When you listen to “One Week,” the closing song to the former film listed, you hear Steven Page doing a rapid-paced rap verse over a bouncy, glitzy guitar/bass riff (“Chickity China the Chinese chicken. You have a drumstick and your brain stops tickin’. Watchin X-Files with no lights on. We’re dans la maison. I hope the smokey man’s in this one”), followed by the organ heavy, guitar driven chorus line. With lyrics like that, the best way to describe them is this: listening to them is like listening to a squadron of optimistic dads, having fun, making music that “the kids” can vibe to, while also staying true to their roots.

However, despite their upbeat tempos and their digestible appeal, they have, in my opinion, failed to come through with anything that interesting. With the exceptions of singles like “It’s All Been Done,” and “One Week,” their work is not bad, but it is also not that great either. The word that comes to mind is “harmless.”

And quite frankly, that is the best way to describe their latest LP, “Fake Nudes” (haha, get it?). The album is the usual fair that, if you are into them enough, you have probably come to expect.

The album’s lead single, and opening track, “Canada Dry,” has this very sweet glow to their production. The tempos, the melodies; you feel like the band has not a worry in the world. With the exception to the keyboards, there is a minimal electronic aspect to the sound; it is mostly acoustic and percussion.

Lyrically, the band explores their Canadian roots with this album, with lyrics like “We were shining like the Aurora Borealis; like Sid sipping from the Stanley chalice” and “shining like a Saskatoon sunset” being littered throughout the song.

Songs like “Lookin’ Up” and “We Took The Night” carry a theme of wanting to get away from the world. They have the theme of wanderlust, a theme prevalent throughout the majority of the album. Other tracks, like “You + Me vs. The World” take that same spirit, and inject a romantic essence to it (“If I was stuck inside a burning building, I’d wanna be there with you/The final seconds of a thrilling ending, Know we’d Macgyver it through”… “It’s you and me against The World, There’s no white flags when you’re my girl”).

Back in September, Bruce Springsteen made an appearance on “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” Springsteen mentioned that he tried to write from his experience as he was living them. He couldn’t have written “Born To Die” when he was fifty, nor would he have wanted to. And that is the problem with this album. The band members are all in their late forties. Why not work off what they are experiencing now? Why not write about old gracefully, trying to stay relevant, being a musician in the modern era? These are all so much more interesting topics than talking about going on exaggerated adventures with your significant other.

Barenaked Ladies have this specific sound to them. Their sound can best be likened to Hootie and The Blowfish’s “Only Wanna Be With You.” There is a heavy emphasis on acoustic guitars, echoey, yet solid drum beats, a moderately volumed keyboard riff thrown in for measure. Just replace Darius Rucker’s deep country voice with Steven Page (currently, Ed Robertson’s) nasally Canadian droll, and voila. You have Barenaked Ladies.

On the positive side, I liked the aesthetic of this album, in some sense. While the themes are not the most interesting, I have always had a soft spot for this warm, summery sound that they, and other bands like them, give off. Hootie and The Blowfish, Sister Hazel… they are corny at times, but the sound just makes me want to go camping; make some memories with friends. I also really liked the pacing. Typically, albums with these kinds of recurring topics tend to be slow, emo jams. But here, they are constantly moving, constantly giving you something to dance to.

All in all, what we get with “Fake Nudes” is an album with weak thematic material, but a fun atmosphere to it. It is something to put on in the background or something to put on during get-togethers. It is not much, but there is something there.