Barenaked Ladies are messing with you

The move to making an independent label has allowed Barenaked Ladies to have complete creative freedom in their choices for their recent release. You may remember seeing Barenaked Ladies Are Me reviewed just a few months ago and be wondering why they have another album out so soon. This is because Barenaked Ladies Are Men is the "second half" of the 29 total tracks of Barenaked Ladies Are Me. The two albums are available as separate physical releases, a USB drive or as a whole online in a regular or deluxe version (which includes two bonus songs, "Why Say Anything Nice?" and "What a Letdown"). Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction as well. Feeling that 29 songs is too much to absorb at one time, they split the record up so as not to overwhelm fans, new or old. This also makes it more accessible for the fans who are not able to buy it online. With that cleared up, let's move on.\nBarenaked Ladies Are Men is the better of the two. While Barenaked Ladies Are Me is a somewhat slower album, Barenaked Ladies Are Men has a lot more variety to it. Songs like "Maybe Not," "Running Out of Ink" and "Quality" have all the right ingredients for classic Barenaked Ladies songs, while "Fun & Games" is a politically heavy song that doesn't pull any punches. Their keyboardist, Kevin Hearn, produces "Serendipity" and "Another Spin," easily two of the best songs on the album and possibly of the band's library. Surprisingly, this album contains the two bonus songs I originally thought were only attainable online, but are awesome additions since "What a Letdown" is an instant favorite and has me addicted to no end. The album is not without its bumps, though. I found myself skipping a few tracks after listening to them only a couple of times and had a hard time differentiating a few of them because they sounded too similar, an issue that slightly disappoints me.\nThe added bonus to buying the album is that it includes "umixit" software to remix three of their songs, with the chance that they could possibly be chosen for a CD of fan remixes. While a little intimidating at first, it takes only a little bit of messing around to become familiar with it.\nWhile overall the entire Barenaked Ladies Are Me release is not one of my favorite albums, Barenaked Ladies Are Men is easily the stronger half and the one I listen to more.