Essay, Research Paper
Maroon
By the
Barenaked Ladies
A Review by
Jared
History of Rock Music 287
UNIV of NEB- Lincoln
Maroon by the Barenaked Ladies
Reprise Records, a Time Warner Company. Produced by Dan Was. Songs: Too Little Too Late, Never Do Anything, Pinch Me, Go Home, Falling For The First Time, Conventioneers, Sell Sell Sell, The Humor Of The Situation, Baby Seat, Off The Hook, Helicopters, Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel.
Personnel: Jim Creeggan: electric bass, vocals, double bass, and viola. Kevin Hearn: piano, symth, vocals, and guitar. Steven Page: Vocals. Ed Robertson: Acoustic and electric guitars, vocals. Tyler Stewart: drums, vocals, and percussion.
I have always said the only thing I miss of a past girlfriend is her collection of Barenaked Ladies albums. After recreating her collection for myself, I learned that a new album was on the way. Maroon – the band’s sixth album is filled with 12 brand new songs with enough quirkiness and pop that will forever be the marks of the Barenaked Ladies (BNL). To my surprise Don Was, a Grammy Award winning producer whose name was also on my B-52’s and Rolling Stones albums, produced this album. This pop-infused CD displays the BNL’s signature of happy, jangly, tunes filled with sarcasm, irony, truth and passion embedded into every song that brings out old memories to everyone.
The first song on the album, “Too Little Too Late,” is an upbeat song with a good backbeat with a catch chorus. It talks about a person who is not able to talk with their significant other about an issue – whatever it may be. BNL takes a daily concern of a person in a relationship and although many times it is serious, the music turns it into a catchy fun time.
“I could be good-And I would-If I knew that I was understood-And it would be great-Just wait-Or is too little too late-One day this embarrassment will be behind me-And that day I could think of things that won’t remind me-But these days-It’s unbearable for both of us who can’t discuss it this way-Getting strength trying to learn it my own way.”
The second song on the album, “Never Do Anything,” is an upbeat song of a deadbeat who is just signing and proclaiming that they will never do anything. As with many of the BNL’s songs, one can see the response, this person singing the song is giving to someone who asks, “Are you ever going to do anything or just sit on you’re a**!?!” The chorus sums their response to this and this song up very well: “I can be that- but soon you’ll see that- I will never do anything.”
The third song and their first single off the album, “Pinch Me” is about Joe Blow—an ordinary guy who has big reams and big ambitions. There is only one problem, in reality; he lives this life in a dream world while sleepwalking through his daily routine. The song is up beat but the lyrics alone suggest something else:
“Please God tell me that I’m still asleep-On an evening such as this it’s hard to tell if I exist-Pack the car and leave this town and notice that I’m not around-I can hide out under there-I just made you say underwear-I could leave but I’ll just stay-All my stuff’s here anyway.”
“Go Home,” speaks of a wandering-eyed country boy to return home to his high school sweetheart, mixed into a twangy sound that makes this song fun to listen to. This song speaks of making sure you are with the one you should be or the felling that you left a love that you shouldn’t have, all depending on the mood you are in.
“If you’re lucky to be one of the few- to find somebody who can tolerate you- Then I shouldn’t have to tell you again- Just pack you bags and get yourself on a plane- If you need her, you should be there- Go home.”
“Falling For The First Time” is feelings that we can all understand even if we don’t think that way. It speaks of all the times that we are all “high and almighty” and then fall on our face and become humbled by how much we really don’t know anything about. This whole message intermingled with an upbeat trap set and an acoustic guitar that sends your foot a tapping.
The sixth song on the album “Conventioneers,” is a mellow tune with a hint of the Motown git-it-on backbeat, speaking of two people at work who have finally followed through on an attraction for each other shown in the fourth verse who don’t know how to react:
“Before all the fireworks exploded- Our conversations were so loaded, innuendo flying-Now what can we say? – Have a nice day”
“The credits role, the camera Pans- And in the mist our hero stands” begins “Sell Sell Sell” that looks at the fine line between art and commercialism. The beginning of the track starts with an old style movie type theme and then ends with an up to date capitalism. All of this in a goofy themed song that just makes you smile or laugh as you here it.
The eighth song and sequential songs carry the same themes, articulation of the writers, and a delightfully view on life. The unique songs in history remade with new lyrics have derived the rhythms of all the songs. BNL bring in the music styles of swing, blues, bubble gum, and jazz that enclose lyrics of life that just make you smile.