Man, I love the Barenaked Ladies. While I'm sure similar comments have been used as set-ups for bad jokes by far too many people (myself included), in this particular case I'm speaking about a five-piece Canadian band that excels at writing and performing witty and catchy pop songs, generally playing by their own rules as they do so. These guys pretty much wrote the book on what I would classify as "dork rock" (though I have to give credit to a few other bands like Weezer in that department while I'm at it). They're not afraid to make their songs sound intentionally goofy and sprinkle them with unpopular instruments, cranking out insistent melodies that can't help but bring a smile to the listener's face, and yet all the while they themselves could be singing about something relatively serious. They're the kind of band I wish I'd discovered when I was in college. (Too bad I was too prudish back then to listen to a band called the Barenaked Ladies.)

Oh wait, I did discover them in college. That was well before the bombshell known as "One Week" dropped, when the group wasn't known outside of Canada as much besides a cult favorite. I had a roommate who was really into the band, and so I have a vague recollection of some of their classic material such as "Brian Wilson", "What a Good Boy", and of course "If I Had $1,000,000". I love all those songs. But since then, I tend to think the band's developed a bit musically - perhaps losing a few fans of their more madcap persona and getting labelled "sellouts" when the breakthrough album Stunt came around, but certainly remaining a literate band who can question the meaning of life and crack a joke about underwear, keeping a straight face all the while. Perhaps it's only natural that a band with such a ludicrous name would have a tough time being taken seriously here in America - but some of us know there's more to them than just a few pop culture references, a couple hit novelty songs, and a bunch of really fast rhymes.

The funny thing is that, despite being a pretty big fan of Maroon, which is perhaps their most serious album to date, it wasn't easy for me to warm up to their new disc, Everything to Everyone. At first listen, it felt like the band was unsure of what to do with themselves - was it time to delve deeper into the smarter and more ironic image they were developing, or was it time to go back to the days of Gordon and just make an album full of fun songs? Everything to Everyone seemed at first to be attempting just what its title suggested - an even split between both. There were times when the songs were unbelievably fun, but I had trouble taking the music seriously - a problem which didn't occur on Maroon. And there were songs that were much more serious in tone, and yet they failed to really grab me. I questioned my impulse buy at first - was $10 worth it for an album with a lead single sort of liked and a few other scattered tracks that momentarily piqued my interest?

Yeah, I should've known better than to judge so quickly. While far from being a perfect album (it makes a major mistake in switching moods rather abruptly throughout the first half, which was part of what perturbed me), and while I'm not hearing anything here that touches most of their classic material, I've found Everything to Everyone to be one of those albums that sinks its claws into you slowly. Maybe nothing's as obviously silly as that old millionaire song, but these guys sure have a penchant for making me chuckle in the midst of getting a serious point across. Sometimes the language is complex enough to make me wonder exactly what they're getting at. But, unlike most groups that string together clever rhyme schemes, I can tell when these guys do have a point, because when they don't have one, they make no pretense of having one. In other words, the BNL don't take themselves too seriously. There's some disparate talent in this band that makes this album a veritable smorgasbord of interesting recipes. (Or at least for the most part.)

Celebrity
When I'm riding in my limo
I won't look out the window
Might make me homesick for humanity...
Hard as it is to believe, the Ladies didn't pick one of their best songs to open with this time around. Maybe they wanted to go for a different approach than hitting the listener over the head with something as obnoxiously catchy as "One Week" or "Too Little Too Late". What they gave us here is an easy-going, piano-based song about becoming famous and turning into a big sellout. Definitely a subject that's been done to death - the band loses a few points for that, since they're generally a little more original with their subject matter. It's rich in the melodic sense - Steven Page and Ed Robertson are always pleasing in the way that they harmonize and play off of each other. I guess I'm just not dazzled with the same level of cleverness I've come to expect from the lead track on a BNL album.

Maybe Katie
I don't know what the fuss is all about
Just take it slow, it's not like you can't live without her...
If the cheesy little recording that starts this song off gives you a bit of déjà vu, it's because the band pulled pretty much the same thing on their classic "Enid" - starting off with a quiet-distant sounding recording and then jumping into an extremely upbeat chorus from out of nowhere. "What's so maybe about, what's so maybe about, what's so maybe about Katie?" Suddenly the band is so brash about hammering their major key hook into your head that you almost want to strangle them. This song, which seems to describe a man waffling over whether a somewhat attractive middle-aged single mom is worth dating, manages to be pretty memorable, though I can tell some people aren't going to want to remember it. I've learned to like it, but it's generally a bit too obnoxious for its own good. Probably the best thing it's got going for it is how Steven and Ed switch off verses. And then of course there are the cheery handclaps which echo "Too Little Too Late". That gives the song a unique personality that a lot of bands couldn't give it. But if this ever becomes a radio single... man, people are gonna get so sick of it!

Another Postcard
I'm losing sleep, and it's gonna be keeping me up all night
I thought it was funny, but now I've got money on a monkey fight....
Speaking of radio singles that run the risk of people getting sick of them... I'll admit that I still haven't tired of Ed Robertson's tongue-twisting rhymes in "One Week". And I didn't even mind when he pulled a similar trick in "Pinch Me", the lead single from Maroon. But third time isn't exactly the charm for these guys. "Another Postcard" employs a similarly witty rhyme scheme during its verses, with Steven rambling on about all the different postcards he's received in the mail that have pictures of chimpanzees dressed in interesting outfits and doing some rather odd things. This is apparently a true story, and since the band didn't know what to make of it, they decided to write a song out of it. I'm all for meaningless fun songs, but something about this one just kind of falls flat. Maybe it's the overall tunelessness of the verse, which seems to stick to one chord for far too long. Or maybe Steven's chorus just feels weak. I'm not getting the funny bone payoff that I expected here. Instead, my reaction is more like, "OK, that was random. What's next?" I like Kevin Hearn's playful keyboard hits and his manic whispering at the beginning of the song, and it's certainly impressive to hear Ed and Steven singing two different things at the same time near the end (something else that reminds me of "Enid"), so I guess it's still a better than average song... but I know these guys can do better than that.

Next Time
Comfort in community obliterated
Given opportunity, I hesitated
Even my humility's humiliated...
This one seems to be a holdover from Maroon. Maybe I think that because the music has a circus-like feel to it with its 3/4 time signature - it reminds me very much of "Tonight Is the Night that I Fell Asleep at the Wheel", though it's certainly less morbid than that. There's just an overall tone of resignation here as Steven sings "You can always get it right next time", as if he's not sure there will actually be a next time and he regrets not taking the bull by the horns sooner. It makes for an interesting song, but ultimately it's a bit too defeatist for me to fully get into it. It's also too early in the album for something of this nature.

For You
In a book, in a box, high upon a shelf
In a locked and guarded vault
Are the things I keep only for myself
It's your fate, but it's not your fault...
Just to further confuse the flow of things, Ed decides to throw a heartfelt country song at us from out of nowhere. Of course, it's not the first time the Barenaked Ladies have done something like this - a lot of their mellower songs from over the years have had a folksy lilt to them. Once again, it's just a bit of a problem with flow. I've learned to appreciate this one more after listening carefully - the guys do a great job harmonizing, and the presence of a mandolin and banjo definitely liven things up a bit. Ultimately, whatever Ed's singing about doing for someone he loves comes across as being a bit too vague for me to grasp his point, and it's because of that that I think most folks are just plain going to overlook this one. Too many medium-tempo songs near the front of an album generally causes such things to happen.

Shopping
It's never enough until you've got all the stuff
When the going gets rough, just shop with somebody tough...
Here's where the album starts to shift into high gear. Ironically, this happens with the absolute dumbest song on the album. This song is upbeat, dominated by cheesy keyboards, and completely insipid in its message that "Everything will always be alright when we go shopping." On top of that, its main hook is a frenetic refrain of "Lalalalalalalalalalalala!" What makes it work, of course, is that the absurd stupidity of it all is the point. Consider it satire if you will. Examine the amusing artwork in the liner notes and you'll see the band delivering various products labelled "everything" to grateful consumers, as if to imply that they have the goods to solve all of the world's problems and keep them smiling in the process. We all know that shopping as a means of fixing your problems is superficial. This song just sticks it to us for giving into the lure of the commercials anyways, because it's one big, obnoxious commercial jingle. Just to sweeten the deal, the band got the Blue Man Group on board to play some of their inventive percussion instruments - unfortunately they get a bit buried in the mix, but I can definitely picture the painted trio running around frantically to a song like this during their stage show. Wouldn't be ironic if this song became a huge hit single and all the mallrats got to hear it on the speaker systems at their favorite stores on a regular basis? Yeah, I'd love to see that happen.

Testing 1, 2, 3
He's everything that you need
You wiped out on your ten speed
And either he will succeed, or just suck...
For me, this song is the album's centerpiece. It's the best example of where the Ladies' lyrical wit and their penchant for making fun and catchy tunes collide. It starts off with a bouncy beat inspired by the hip-hop of yesteryear, reminding me of Switchfoot's hit song "Gone" in the process. Ed goes and gets all self-referential on this one, asking the honest question "If I shed the irony, would everybody cheer me?" Not surprising to hear such a question from a band whose biggest hits are based on a lot of rhymes and gags, and who get pigeonholed as a novelty band by so many people. Heaven forbid that a band responsible for a few mega-hit songs actually decides to experiment. And Heaven forbid that they try to be meaningful in the process. Most people will just react like the snobbish girl Ed describes in the second verse, who has stashed their CD in the glove compartment pf her car and neglected to listen to it. "Ever since she found out what the words meant, she decided she preferred them all wrong."

Upside Down
Imagine everything you've done
Under a microscope on view for everyone
And if the King of Circumspection's here, he's come in vain...
This wacky little number seems to take the recent tunes "It's Only Me (The Wizard of Magicland)" and "Get in Line" and kick them up a notch to create an upbeat, rocking song that packs a bit of a punch. Starting off with a furious string intro, Steven barks his way through a verse that finds the music starting and stopping to make room for his lyrics. It's one of those songs that has so much going on that you might forget to actually think about what it means. I couldn't tell you for sure - Steven appears to be expressing misgivings over making a significant change that will "Turn my whole world upside down". Perhaps it refers to making the commitment of marriage, or perhaps it refers to playing the "rock star" game that would require him to act like the typical guitar god or boy band hunk that is so well-loved in this industry. Whatever the case, he makes sure that those who expect these things don't have a snowball's chance in hell of understanding him by singing about things like Andy Warhol. To top it all off, a quirky guitar-solo pierces through during the bridge, and an insistent accordion gives the song a distinctly Jewish feel. Yeah, this is an odd one alright!

War on Drugs
On behalf of humanity
I will fight for your sanity
How profound such profanity can be...
The funny thing about guys who have a genuinely witty sense of humor is that they can also be quite eloquent when you capture them in a serious moment. This seemingly low-key ballad captures Steven in such a mode. I remember being caught off-guard by "Call and Answer" and "Conventioneers", but this one seems to exist on an entirely different plane. It's about a tortured woman who seems to have turned to drugs and thoughts of suicide as a means to deal with her loneliness. The thing is, I'm not clear exactly what the message is here. I think the band is simply asking how we're going to react to the reality that people around us are living rather screwed-up lives while we're acting like we don't care. Or rather, are we going to react at all? I think they're also questioning our continuous pursuit of being "happy", since the chorus asks a poignant question: "Won't it be dull/When we've rid ourselves of all these demons haunting us/To keep us company?" The guys definitely raise more questions than they offer answers here, which is good since it keeps a song on a difficult subject from getting preachy and trite. I'm not exactly sure what they're getting at with the line "They say that Jesus and mental health/Are just for those who can help themselves", nor am I sure how fighting the "war on drugs" relates to any of this - all I know is that I'm left with a strangely lovely sense of pain when the song's final verse leaves me hanging.

Aluminum
Illuminating just what you want to show
You'd never rust, but I'd never know...
This song fades in like a dream, with a shimmering piano and some weird bending noises in the background that make me wonder if there's a sitar buried in the mix somewhere. I guess comparing the overall sound of the song to its lyrical content is strangely analogous to the point of the song, since it ends up being a fairly simple diatribe against someone who acts fake - "You can shine like silver all you want/But you're just aluminum". It's almost frustrating - since the music is so interesting, I want the song to be about something more interesting. The song does serve to contribute to what I think is an overall theme on Everything to Everyone - the need for people to be genuine instead of just trying to please everyone. I just don't think they're as poignant here as they could be - and I also don't think it was as clever as they though it was to throw in the British word "aluminium".

Unfinished
I took her hand, but it was not in matrimony
I told my side, but it was never testimony...
Speaking of things that the band seems to think was clever, this song's chorus is built around such a verbal gag. "Everything is un, everything is unfin, everything is unfinished." Ha ha, I get it, you were so lazy you couldn't even finish the word. I would've found that funny in the 6th grade, guys. But I can't be too hard on this one, even though it sounds like another insipid, bouncy piano song at the outset, the verses are quite well-written, reading like a riddle: "I played along, but it was not for recreation/I left my home, but it was not evacuation." They also pull of some clever key changes here that make the song a worthwhile listen. Just try not to choke on that chorus, OK?

Second Best
If winning is an art
Then it's drawn us apart
When you erased your heart and beat your chest...
It's interesting that the Ladies saved two of the album's most upbeat songs for the back half of the album, after more introspective numbers like "War on Drugs". Not that I'm complaining; I guess it just helps explain why the front end was a bit wobbly. This one's a fairly straight-ahead pop/rock number with sharp drums, guitars, and backing vocals (there's a higher pitched voice echoing during the chorus which I think is bass player Jim Creeggan). Heck if I know what this one is a bout - perhaps it has to do with jaded cynicism and resigning oneself to "Join the chorus of the unimpressed". Maybe that's because being the best by the world's standards is a pretty screwed-up endeavor, but sometimes it's tough to tell exactly where the Ladies' cynicism is directed.

Take It Outside
Hardly know what anything's for
Just for show, I'm slamming the door
Even so, my heart and my head are an open book...
Ed takes the lead on another laid-back song that sounds like a bit of a pop/country hybrid. He's singing about not having the guts to stand up to a guy who's bullying him, or perhaps who is competing with him for the affection of the girl. It's the classic quandary of the "sensitive guy" - we don't want to come off as too aggressive, so we end up not standing up for ourselves at all. The song has a melody to it that makes me swear they lifted it from something off of early 80's pop radio - there's even a moment during the chorus where they really remind me of Peter Cetera - when they sing "Any other guy/Would want to take it outside", I'm really tempted to sing "You're the meaning in my life/You're the inspiration". Scary, isn't it?

Have You Seen My Love?
There is a dream that we both used to share
And we swore we would never wake
Now the dream's a nightmare, and the truth to be fair
Is that dreaming was the first mistake...
Sadly, the album didn't start off strong, and it doesn't end strong either. This clumsy little folk tune might just be Everything's weakest link - the acoustics are nice and Steven tries to pull off a melancholy, lovelorn mood, but something about the lyrical flow just seems a bit off. Lyrically, it's a pretty interesting tune about looking at the woman you've been with for ages and wondering where the passion has gone, but I think they dealt with this sort of stuff better on Maroon. This one just leaves a sour taste in my mouth at the end of an album that had otherwise done quite a bit to redeem itself in its back half.

The band has been nothing if not generous on this album - in addition to 14 brand new songs, we also get treated to acoustic takes of Another Postcard, Maybe Katie, and Second Best. The lighter take on "Postcard" unfortunately reveals how melodically thin it is without the programming and production to distract the listener, and "Maybe Katie", while fun, doesn't really benefit from a reprise here. "Second Best", on the other hand, stands neck-and-neck with the "plugged-in" version, relying on a quick acoustic rhythm and Tyler Stewart's snappy drumming to keep its momentum. There's a little bit of studio chatter in between that clues us in to just how much fun the guys and producer Ron Aniello were having during these recording sessions. (For what it's worth, a special edition of this CD is available with a DVD that features the entire album being played acoustically. I'd be interested to watch that sometime, since I know the band is capable of holding their own without all of the production wizardry, but I feel no great need to own it.)

Despite my initial misgivings about Everything to Everyone, and the few tracks which I still find to be frustratingly weak, I'm going to go ahead and give the album my stamp of approval, and a 4-star rating (rounded up from 3.5 because they just plain amuse me). For now I'm still going to go with Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits as the essential disc in the BNL catalog, though that may change as I dig deeper into their older material. If you've enjoyed both the silly and serious sides of the BNL over the years, then you'll probably have a great time with this album, 'cause there's a little something for everyone on here. But if you just liked their radio hits, or if you're hoping for another Gordon, then I might advise you to hear more of it before you include it in your next shopping spree.

ALBUM WORTH:
Celebrity $.50
Maybe Katie $1.50
Another Postcard $1.50
Next Time $1
For You $.50
Shopping $2
Testing 1, 2, 3 $2
Upside Down $2
War on Drugs $2
Aluminum $1
Unfinished $1
Second Best $1.50
Take It Outside $.50
Have You Seen My Love? $0
Another Postcard (acoustic) $.50
Maybe Katie (acoustic) $1
Second Best (acoustic) $1.50
TOTAL: $19.50

Band Members:
Steven Page: Lead vocals & guitar
Ed Robertson: Lead vocals, acoustic & electric guitars
Jim Creeggan: Bass, vocals
Kevin Hearn: Keyboards, guitar, accordion, vocals
Tyler Stewart: Drums, vocals

Website: http://www.bnlmusic.com

Great Music to Play While: Lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala! Shopping!

Recommended: Yes