Barenaked Ladies have a ‘Good Time’ without Page

Barenaked Ladies

All in a Good Time

Raisin’ Records

All in a Good Time

Raisin’ Records

Rocks Like: Moxy Fruvous

Grade: B

After 10 successful albums, a band’s subsequent work threatens to grow progressively more mundane. But the Barenaked Ladies’ 11th album, All in Good Time, marks a different, though positive, new chapter in the Canadian group’s career.

All in Good Time is the group’s first album since founding member and lead vocalist Steven Page left the group to pursue a solo career. And just as Page wasted no time getting back into the music game (see the recently released cover album A Singer Must Die), Barenaked Ladies shows no sign of slowing down or allowing the reduced line-up to sour the quality of its music.

I was not very familiar with the Barenaked Ladies’ repertoire before listening to Good Time. Fortunately, the album lives up to its name and serves as a pleasant introduction to the band’s easygoing variety of alternative rock.

The vocal performances are never sacrificed for the sake of crazy guitar riffs or mindless drum solos, especially on tracks like “How Long” or “On The Look Out.”

Devoted fans of Barenaked Ladies would be ill-advised to avoid All in Good Time simply because of Page’s absence. It’s clear that whatever the group’s formula for success was, it’s just as potent without that ingredient.