SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: BARENAKED LADIES – FAKE NUDES: NAKED EP 

Barenaked Ladies
Fake Nudes: Naked EP 
Raisin’ Records 

Barenaked Ladies have released an EP consisting of eight songs taken from their Fake Nudes album that they’ve redone in acoustic format. This new EP, entitled “Fake Nudes: Naked”, coincides with their 44-city “Group Therapy Tour” opening for headliners Hootie and the Blowfish. It’s worthwhile to respect and appreciate this stripped-down collection of songs given the band’s emphasis on pure vocals and instrumentation with noticeably minimalistic studio electronic influence.

The opening song, “Canada Dry”, is a pleasant flowing, simple, home grown folk song with reference pertaining to Canadian entertainers past and present. It’s a song of course that will be most appreciated by the band’s Canadian audience.

The songs “Bringing it Home” and “Lookin’ Up” attempt a similar folk-based format, yet both songs feel as though they aim too hard towards commercial success. The single note plunking of the piano keys in these songs feels contradictory. One exception is in the rendition of “Bringing it Home” with Kevin Hearns playing a nice background piano for Robertson’s vocals.

The songs “Invisible Fence” and “Township of King” are both written and sung by Hearns. The vocals get away from the once customary Barenaked Ladies harmonies although the band tries to reel them in.

In this EP’s version of the song “Navigate” the band performs without use of electronic percussion, creating a favourable and pleasant flow and a truer BNL sound.

A bright light in this collection of songs is “We Took the Night”. This song flows from chorus to verse with rhythmic hooks and melodic unison.

This is a friendly folk music collection that will play nicely for the trip up to cottage country and around the campfire.

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