Barenaked Ladies - Fake Nudes (November 17, 2017) Album

Best album title of the year?

November 17, 2017 on Vanguard Records

01. Canada Dry
02. Bringing It Home
03. Invisible Fence
04. Lookin’ Up
05. Sunshine
06. Dusty Rooms
07. We Took The Night
08. Navigate
09. Flying Dreams
10. Nobody Better
11. Bag of Bones
12. You and Me
13. 20/20 Hindsight
14. The Township of King

First single "Lookin' Up" here: Barenaked Ladies Debut New Song 'Lookin' Up,' About World's Doom-and-Gloom Mentality as a 'False Narrative' (Exclusive)

 

I don't see myself listening to this, but sweet loving fuck, that is an amazing title.

 

it's really the best album title ever

 

These guys, while not as great as they were with Stephen Page, are still a pretty solid and fun band.

 

Two songs out now:

 

I don't know if it's the amazing title but I'm feeling pretty optimistic about this one, even though I've been mostly tepid on their past couple albums. Should probably listen to the prerelease songs to see if there's any foundation for that!

 

Of their post-Page albums, I thought All In Good Time was meh, Grinning Streak was ghastly bad and Silverball was actually pretty good. I've had to separate the two eras in my mind. The songwriting has definitely become more modern – they've got drum machines and a ton of modern keyboard touches on so many of the new songs – but for the post-Page period, they seem to be back in a good direction.

 

I like All in Good Time more than Silverball when all is said and done, but "Silverball" the song is probably my favourite track they've released post-Steve. I wouldn't be able to hum a melody from Grinning Streak if I had a gun to my head.

 

Yes, "Silverball" the song is super super super great.

 

"Odds Are" off Grinning Streak is one of their best since Steven left, but overall I would say....

Silverball > Grinning > Good Time

 

Easily the best on that album, yeah.

 

In hindsight, I actually think All in Good Time is the best of the 'post-Steven' era of BNL. It's a surprisingly melancholic record, but one that's actually quite listenable if you can take it on those terms. Most folks focus on "You Run Away" and "Every Subway Car," but that record really covers a diverse range of styles, from good-old fashioned balladry ("The Love We're In"), to surprisingly groovy ("On the Lookout"), to the utterly wacky ("Four Seconds"), to kinda-sounds-like Foo Fighters ("I Have Learned"), to total Kevin Hearn ("Jerome"). And "Watching the Northern Lights" is one of the most underrated songs they've ever written - sparse, ethereal, beautiful. I really though about seeing them live last year just to see them play it. (And it reminds me a lot of this Spyro track.)

While the new album title is amazing, and I really appreciate the sentiment expressed on the lead single, it looks like this is going to be first proper BNL album I'm not going to buy. I'll still listen to it, but as someone said, there are now two distinct eras in this band's discography, and as much as I hate to be That Guy, I think their old stuff was substantially better. There was clearly some sort of special alchemy that Steve & Ed had as cowriters that gave so many of their songs such a solid core lyrically & musically. And though the last couple records have had a couple moments here and there, for the most part I think they've been the kind of lame, cheesy dad-rock I so often heard BNL derided as. Really not sure I want to see them live again unless they stop leaning so heavily on the new stuff, which at this rate seems unlikely.

 

out now!

 

WAY too much Kevin on this album. His songs are consistently so bad.

 

I like most Kevin songs. He's not the best singer but he's a good songwriter.

I haven't listened to this more than three or four times but it's about on par with the level they seem to be operating at these days. Not bad, but not particularly remarkable.

 

Sad but true. Other than his tracks though, some really really enjoyable stuff on here!

 

"Dusty Rooms" had some promise but then he goes off on some absurd tangent about Mr. T and other dumb stuff. He's easily my least favorite songwriter in the band, and it's frustrating he has so many songs on this album when he could just do another solo album. Six Kevin songs on this album is just wayyyyyyyy too much for me.

"Flying Dreams" is a nice song. That "Bag of Bones" song is embarrassingly bad.

"Canada Dry" is great.

 

I re-listened to this recently, and "Ordinary" is a marvelous song. Real emotional drama and poignancy in that song that reminds me of the early stuff. That's missing so much in the post-Page material.

 

I sang your first sentence. Metallica forever :D

 

Hearn is an acquired taste, to be sure. What little I’ve heard of his solo stuff I quite liked, but his BNL songs can be really hit-or-miss. It is funny to me how the back half of this record becomes the Kevin Hearn Variety Hour! That said, I enjoyed about half of his songs on this record, especially “The Township Of King.” In fact, although it still doesn’t match a lot of their previous material, I definitely enjoyed this record a lot more than the last two. “We Took the Night,” “Sunshine,” and “Bringing It Home” are way more tolerable than just about anything on Silverball.

 

"Sunshine" is really nice. I like "Navigate" quite a bit too, even if it and "Sunshine" occupy the same sort of space on the album. I wish there were a big Ed rock song on this one. I think they missed covering that base.

 

Y’know what?? I say we go ahead and start listing most underrated BNL songs!

I’ll go first...

 

+1 Great Provider (though wouldn't think this is underrated), Told You So, In the Car and Powder Blue