barenaked ladies are me

I 'came into' a promo copy of some of the new songs off Barenaked Ladies upcoming album Barenaked Ladies Are Me from Nettwork this week at work. Now, I usually have a rule about not listening to albums in progress or downloading bits of them before it has been released. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to hear the new songs surrounded by the rest of the album, in the space the artists have painstakingly chosen. But 8/15 of the new songs taunting me from my iTunes list proved too much to resist.

I've been listening to the album on and off today. I'm still very much in that getting to know it stage where I try to absorb the lyrics and the sounds, discovering all of its magic. I am reminded again of the love I have for Ed's funny-yet-seeped-in-ironic-depth lyrics when this gem passes by in the song Take it Back:

"Think of all the lives/
Saved by plastic knives."

Fucking brilliant.

This song was followed by one of the best fun bass-lines ever in Everything Had Changed .... Jimmy there you are. Kevin's playing the mandolin again... is that the shiny accordion? Wow Steve’s voice is so very Broadway on this one… the flood of 12 years of my own Barenaked memories flood back and quite suddenly I’m home.

Sometimes listening to new music of a band you've loved forever is a lot like discovering an old friend and other times it's like putting on a comfy sweater. It envelopes you in its warmth and familiarity. It's a lot like coming home.


"That’s when I knew where I was...
That's when that I was.. home."