Barenaked Ladies release new album

Barenaked Ladies

Maroon

Reprise Records

FOUR STARS

Barenaked Ladies, purveyors of 1998's multi-platinum Stunt, are back with their fifth and newest studio album, painting clever and intelligent lyrics over a backdrop of exquisite melodies and harmonies.

Maroon finds the kings of the Canadian music scene maturer, but their tongues still planted firmly in their cheeks. The songs are, for the most part, upbeat and witty. Some might say BNL are going more "pop" than before. But broadening their appeal (under the attentive eye of legendary producer Don Was) hasn't diluted any of their abundant talent.

BNL are in their usual, good-natured mood on tracks like "Never Do Anything," "Too Little Too Late" and "Falling for the First Time," interweaving rollicking guitar riffs and snappy rhythms with catchy lyricism and humor - but not too much. Although this is a band that built its reputation on songs like "You Can Be My Yoko Ono" and "If I Had a Million Dollars" it seems like the band members would rather create songs that do more than just make us laugh.

"Pinch Me," the album's first single, builds upon a lazy guitar-lick with Ed Robertson's melodious voice. The only criticism of the song: Robertson's machine-gun delivery of the chorus sounds too much like "One Week."

Shifting nimbly back and forth between a subdued background organ and a rock-out chorus, "Off the Hook" - which might have been a wiser choice for the album's first single - addresses a relationship suffering under the weight of suspicion and guilt. ("He could get away with murder one/And you would clean the smoking gun/With every crime, you bought each line/ But not this time")

"Go Home," an energetic homage to the Lovin' Spoonful's "Do You Believe in Magic?" happily implores listeners that "If you scream in your sleep, or collapse in a heap/ And spontaneously weep, then you know you're in deep, if you need her, you should be there/ Go home."

There's the lush, soulful "Conventioneers," a ballad chronicling two co-workers who engage in a romantic fling at a company event. ("You turned down all the lights, I lit the candles/We rolled around in hotel sandals") But their roll-in-the-hay destroys their in-office innuendoes and the song ends with the protagonist wishing his one-time lover would just transfer out of state.

BNL also tackle car-wreck tragedy ("Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel"); overpaid, undertalented movie stars ("Sell Sell Sell") and fickle media coverage of modern warfare ("Helicopters"). They accomplish all this with equal mastery, never sounding sanctimonious or overly bitter.

The album's remaining tracks, "Humor of the Situation," "Baby Seat" and hidden track "Hidden Sun" aren't the band's strongest work, past or present. Still, I'll gladly take a less-than-perfect BNL over other less-than-talented singers and groups who attain chart success by shaking their booties, altering their voices, showing their belly-buttons or copying their own songs.

-Eric Schwartzberg