And on some level it's a damn shame and another example of people not giving the Barenaked Ladies enough credit. Breaking out in the mid-90s with an album that's a borderline classic with Gordon, they did consistently well up here until Stunt and Maroon broke them in the U.S.. And then without warning, everything seemed to fall apart. Their 2003 album didn't land them traction in the rougher, darker rock scene of the early 2000s, and pop rock acts that actually had a sense of humour were marginalized. So the Barenaked Ladies did the next best thing - they went independent and continued to put out albums of reasonable quality... until the second blow hit and frontman Steven Page left the band. It was a shadow that hung over the otherwise excellent All In Good Time that was released in 2010 as the Barenaked Ladies grappled with the loss.
Fortunately, by 2013 things had recovered and while I didn't love their 2013 record Grinning Streak, longtime fans of this channel might remember I included 'Odds Are' as my favourite song of 2013 across the board. And I stand by that choice - 'Odds Are' is damn near a perfect pop rock song and the music video made with Rooster Teeth was all kinds of wonderful. But what gave me hope coming out of Grinning Streak was that the band was starting to construct a new identity minus Page, and while the lyrics weren't quite as biting or obscenely clever, there was still a sense of whimsy and underdog charm that was impossible to take away. Sure, there were cracks in the production and writing, but they could refine that going forward, right? And so of course I was going to cover Silverball, and I had high hopes. These guys are Canadian pop rock veterans, and what meagre buzz I could find suggested that this album was even better than Grinning Streak - so did they pull it off?
Honestly, I'm not calling Silverball a bad record, because it's not, on some level it feels like the exuberant promise of Grinning Streak at its best rings more hollow with this album. And look, for as much as you argue that the band is in their third decade of existence and have a right to stick in their comfort zone - a comfort zone that still manages to create enough rock-solid pop rock that easily outstrips many of their peers - I'm underwhelmed by this, almost across the board.
So what happened? Well, the best place to start is with the instrumentation and production, which might just be the most reminiscent of the heavier edge that was injected into their most popular material with enough of a modern bent to not feel out of place - in other words, a fair bit like Grinning Streak but a little better balanced. And that unfortunately means that the percussion is stiffer and pushed more to the front of the mix, the riffs are chunkier, and there's more of a groove-centric focus. Now let me stress that you still get good melodies - the Barenaked Ladies aren't going to throw aware the best part of their pop appeal, and the addition of quirkier, almost chiptune synth lines isn't a bad choice for a modern Barenaked Ladies album - certainly plays better than most of what they tried on Grinning Streak. Hell, I dug that cheerful melody balanced against the more acoustic energy of 'Matter of Time' as the guitars simmered in the background with some nice horns, a tactic that worked pretty well as well on the lead-off single 'Say What You Want' with the noisier guitars and the mid-tempo buzzing melodies of the title track and Owl City-esque synth elements. Then there's 'Hold My Hand' which takes a watery synth bass background and pushes a pretty solid guitar groove to the front of the track, ends with a good solo, and brings some welcome snarl to the record. 'Narrow Streets' come close too with a solid groove, but it seems like the edges were sanded and instead the mix focused on a squealing synth that was placed higher in the mix than it should have and a terrible tonal choice for the solo. It's better on 'Piece Of Cake' that oddly sounds if the Barenaked Ladies covered a cross between U2 and ABBA with the snarled rollick to the guitars and bass, especially on the solo, and weird retro-disco synth choice - and bizarrely, I kind of really liked it. Probably the highlight for me on this album was the gentle acoustic ballad 'Toe To Toe', which features some good shimmering background effects and a great hand-picked solo. But these are the songs that have the nervous looseness and rock edge that used to characterize the Barenaked Ladies at their best. Tracks like the heavier riffs of 'Get Back Up', the thicker handclaps, punchy synths and runny synth of 'Duct Tape Heart', or the burbling, overproduced 'Globetrot' with the chintzy popping tone and complete lack of payoff, they just feel awkward, the band playing for a sound that used to come naturally.
This is not helped by most of the vocals, courtesy of Ed Robertson for the majority of the album with the occasional track from Kevin Hearn or Jim Creeggan. Now the band has always struggled here without Steven Page's rougher edge to balance out against Ed Robertson's self-deprecating earnestness, but this record shows the absence all the more plainly. I appreciate Robertson giving Hearn more of a chance in front of the microphone, but the completely by-the-numbers 'Passcode' squanders a pretty solid bass rollick and decent piano on completely underwhelming vocal performance. It's even worse on 'Tired Of Fighting With You', which does have a solid piano-driven misty vibe, but Hearn doesn't have the emotional range to sell this with more of a comedic tone... at least I sure as hell hope this is a joke, because Weird Al did this twice with 'One More Minute' and 'You Don't Love Me' playing in the exact same template. Creeggan fairs better on 'Narrow Streets', with a timbre that might be pretty solid if he had been mixed a little higher, but really, the big issue that carries across the entire album is consistent with all the vocalists: a lack of real potent energy. Most of this album plays in very mid-tempo territory, lukewarm enough to be agreeable but Robertson's voice plays better to earnest power or overwritten, morally ambiguous material that might have more of a sense of humour.
And this is where Silverball really falls short, and the biggest disappointment for me, and that's the lyrics, and again, it's not like they're bad. By the standards of self-deprecating, generally earnest love songs, the Barenaked Ladies can write these in their sleep. The problem is that, like with their last album, the missing hidden edge that had real bite that came courtesy of Steven Page, and it doesn't have the layers of little details that gave the band so much lyrical personality or humour. Take 'Matter Of Time' - yeah, there's a tired honesty to the song at acknowledging the relationship was probably doomed that I can appreciate, but it's so barebones and thinly sketched that I don't get a lot of personality from it. I like the Toronto references on 'Narrow Streets' that try to paint more of a picture, but it never really builds to much beyond vague aspirations. But thematically, Silverball is more interested in examining the band's own continued existence, and they seem to toe the line between passive-aggressive and outright defensiveness, frustrated at a critical audience who wants them to repeat their past successes. You could easily make the argument that songs like 'Toe To Toe', 'Piece Of Cake', 'Say What You Want', hell the majority of this record is directly addressing the audience, fans, and critics, with the message that the band had their moment in the spotlight over fifteen years ago and trying to find something workable without losing what made them who they are, as they're frustrated and heartily sick of fighting. And to the Barenaked Ladies' credit, songs where they take more of a nuanced look at this breakdown and failure to stick in the same way are some of their best, but there's a fine line to getting this right, and the tone and writing isn't often balanced well enough to make it hit for me - the instrumentation is chipper and light, but the writing is tinged with frustration and melancholy. What's telling from Silverball is that the band isn't quite sure themselves what that original formula was, and they never did 'sell out', instead sticking with what they know and what works - but at the same time, peeling through defensive writer's block in trying to recreate that spark doesn't exactly lend itself to great material, especially when it has nowhere near the energy or momentum or nuance.
In other words, Silverball to me feels like a record celebrating its own existence, but the question of whether the celebration was worth having is harder to answer. And on some level I get it - keeping your ideas fresh around a dozen albums into your multi-decade career is incredibly difficult, especially when your sound hasn't strayed far from what you know and you're missing one of your best songwriters. But the album feels tired, and the Barenaked Ladies in their current incarnation don't quite have the emotional nuance in delivery or writing to elevate that. Coupled with production and instrumentation that doesn't really take any chances or have punch or energy, I'm thinking a light 6/10 and only a recommendation if you're a hardcore fan like me. I wanted to love this album, guys... but for the most part, this album feels a bit like a gutterball.
No comments:
Post a Comment