Jingle Bell Jawn #7: 'Barenaked for the Holidays' -- Barenaked Ladies

Like many people our age – plus/minus five years – Donna and I had a Barenaked Ladies phase. That is, we were active participants in the late ‘90s/early ‘00s moment when BNL was a big deal.

It had begun for us with the band’s debut album, though we weren’t into it until they’d made a few more records. And while we thought it was cute, I don’t think their freakish huge hit, “One Week”, was the huge draw for us. But it was those pure pop songs like “It’s All Been Done” and “Too Little Too Late” that we really loved. Plus they were, and probably still are, a stellar live band.

While we both still like BNL, we have lost track of them over the years, especially since what appears to have been Stephen Page’s somewhat acrimonious split for the band in 2009. Despite losing touch with the band’s current work, I have to admit that it did my heart good to see Page reunite with the rest of the band to be inducted in the Canadian Music Hall of Fame at the Juno Awards in 2018. They were inducted by Geddy Lee! How cool is that?

Anyway, we were still invested enough in BNL to pick up their Barenaked for the Holidays album upon its release in 2004. At the same time though, as our ardor for the band has cooled, hasn’t exactly been in heavy December rotation in recent years. So, it was fun to revisit it, just as it was to revisit BNL’s great album Maroon for a 20th anniversary retrospective article that I wrote for PopMatters.  

Jingle Bell Jawn #7: Barenaked for the Holidays – Barenaked Ladies (2004, Desperation Records).

How Did I Acquire This Album? I probably picked this up at Barnes & Noble.

Does This Album Include a Version of “Jingle Bells”? Yes, the opening track. It’s slow and loungey, then its frenetic, then it ends slow and loungey.

What’s The Story on This Album? After a having a few hit albums, BNL’s commercial success had cooled slightly, but they also had the freedom to do whatever they wanted, which apparently included a holiday album.

What Does This Album Mean to Me? Not a whole lot, really. As mentioned above, Donna and I had binged on BNL for a few years through, but by this point, our interest level had tapered off a little bit. We dutifully bought this CD and spun with some regularity during the first holiday season or two after its release, but it hasn’t been in heavy rotation for a while.

Having said that, I think Barenaked for the Holidays is a perfectly decent pop rock holiday album.

Highlights: “Elf’s Lament”, featuring Michael Buble, is a funny original, while “Green Christmas” is a ruminative tune on yuletide envy. I also like the short, MUZAKy keyboard-based versions of several holiday classics that dot the album. Those pieces conjure up the days when every shopping mall featured an organ store.

Lowlights: No lowlights to speak of, really.

Oddities: “Deck the Stills” a brief tune featuring just the last names of the members of Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young.

How Do I Rate This Album, in Strictly Musical Terms, on a Scale of 1 to 5 Jingle Bells? 3 out of 5 jingle bells. Barenaked for the Holidays is exactly what a BNL holiday album ought to be.

How Do I Rate This Album, in Personal Emotional Resonance (P.E.R), on a Scale of 1 to 5 Partridges in a Pear Tree?I’ll giveBarenaked for the Holidays2 partridges, but that might be generous. Listening to it is not generating the happy memories of Christmas time with two young boys that I would have thought it would, given that Jimmy and Chris were 7 and 2 years old when the album was first released.