Maroon (Barenaked Ladies album)

Untitled

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	59/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic
Entertainment.ie
Entertainment Weekly	(A−)
PopMatters	(Positive)
Rolling Stone

Maroon is the fifth full-length studio album by Barenaked Ladies. The album was the follow-up to 1998's Stunt, which was the band's most successful album in the United States. Maroon debuted at #1 in Canada (their second to reach #1 after 1992's Gordon) and #5 on the U.S. Billboard 200. In its first week, the album sold 17,800 copies in Canada and just under 128,000 in the United States. It has sold at least 1 million copies in the U.S. alone. With keyboardist Kevin Hearn's leukemia battle won, and with an instinct to play down the jokey reputation they were so known for, BNL deliberately created a more serious and sophisticated album. The album spawned three successful singles which still receive moderate airplay: "Pinch Me", "Too Little Too Late" and "Falling for the First Time".

Unlike past albums, the songs came almost entirely from the pairing of Page/Robertson. One track, "Baby Seat", was written by Page with his longtime song-writing partner, Stephen Duffy. This was the last Page/Duffy track that Barenaked Ladies would release, starting a policy of keeping the writing within the band on their next album. "Hidden Sun", written while Hearn was in the hospital, appears as a hidden track on most copies of the album. As with each of their early albums, the band recorded one song, "Humour of the Situation", completely naked.

The band recorded 17 tracks for the album; Tracks recorded for this album but omitted from the finished record include: "Powder Blue" (appears on the US "Pinch Me" single), "Inline Bowline" (appears as an extra track on some international versions, and is on the Australian "Pinch Me" single), "Born Human" (appears on the Australian "Pinch Me" single, re-recorded for Hearn's album Night Light) and "Half a Heart" (re-recorded for the Barenaked Ladies Are Me sessions before the Maroon sessions version was later released on Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before!). "That's All, That's All" was also written for the album, and was later recorded for Page's The Vanity Project.

Track listing

All tracks are written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson, except where noted

No.	Title	Lead vocals	Length
1.	"Too Little Too Late"	Steven Page	3:24
2.	"Never Do Anything"	Steven Page	3:51
3.	"Pinch Me"	Ed Robertson	4:45
4.	"Go Home"	Steven Page, Ed Robertson	2:43
5.	"Falling for the First Time"	Ed Robertson	3:40
6.	"Conventioneers"	Steven Page	3:43
7.	"Sell Sell Sell"	Steven Page	4:01
8.	"The Humour of the Situation"	Steven Page	3:45
9.	"Baby Seat" (Steven Page, Stephen Duffy)	Steven Page	4:13
10.	"Off the Hook"	Steven Page	4:34
11.	"Helicopters"	Steven Page	4:33
12.	"Tonight Is the Night I Fell Asleep at the Wheel"	Steven Page	3:48
13.	"Hidden Sun†" (Kevin Hearn)	Kevin Hearn	5:01

† - hidden track

Personnel

• Jim Creeggan - electric bass (tracks 1,2,3,5,8,9,10,11), background vocals (tracks 1,4,5,6,9,11,12) handclaps (tracks 1,4), violin (tracks 3,11), viola (tracks 3,7,11,12), baritone guitar (track 4), glockenspiel (track 4), electric double bass (tracks 6,12), double bass (tracks 4,6,7,11), acro double bass (track 12)
• Kevin Hearn - organ (tracks 1,2,3,8,9), synthesizer (tracks 5,6,10,12), piano (tracks 2,5,6,8,9,10), accordion (track 2), glockenspiel (track 7), electric piano (tracks 3,4), background vocals (tracks 1,5,6,7,9,12), clavinet (tracks 1,2), handclaps (track 1), sampling (tracks 1,2,7,9,12), baritone guitar (track 7), vocoder (track 8), electric guitar (track 11), keyboards (tracks 7,11), melodica (track 11)
• Steven Page - lead vocals (tracks 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12), background vocals (tracks 1,3,5,6), acoustic guitar (track 11), flute (track 12), recorder (track 11)
• Ed Robertson - lead vocals (tracks 3,5), background vocals (tracks 1,2,4,6,7,8,9,10,11,12), acoustic guitar (tracks 1,3,4,5,6,7,8), electric guitar (all tracks), tambourine (track 10), 12 string guitar (track 11), handclaps (tracks 1,4), wah wah guitar (track 6), cabasa (track 10), mandolin (track 11), banjo (track 12)
• Tyler Stewart - castanets (track 7), drums (tracks 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,11), tambourine (tracks 1,4,6,7,8,9,11), bells (track 11), handclaps (track 1), timpani (tracks 7,12), cowbell (track 6), wah wah shaker (track 6), background vocals (tracks 4,5), 808 drums (track 10), drum kit (track 10), shaker (track 11), snare drum (track 12), cymbal (track 12)

with:

• Jim Scott - "supreme" handclaps (track 1), "high-ass vocals" (track 4)
• Roberto "Tiny" Menegoni - shaker (track 3), tambourine (track 5), maracas (track 10), bass drum (track 12)
• Party in Studio 3- Sweet Pea Atkinson, Jane Oppenheimer, Jen Hilliard, and Jim Scott (track 2)
• Sean Cullen and the male cast of "Shave It" (track 7)
• Major Scale courtesy of Chris Brown (track 9)
• Jono Abrams- Faxed thumbs-up (track 12)

Production

• Producer: Don Was
• Engineer: Jim Scott
• Assistant engineer: Katy Teasdale

Charts

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2000	The Billboard 200	5
2000	Canadian RPM Albums Chart	1
2000	Top Internet Albums	1

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2000	"Pinch Me"	Adult Top 40	2
2000	"Pinch Me"	Modern Rock Tracks	30
2000	"Pinch Me"	The Billboard Hot 100	15
2000	"Pinch Me"	Top 40 Mainstream	17
2000	"Pinch Me"	Top 40 Tracks	11
2001	"Falling for the First Time"	Adult Top 40	11
2001	"Pinch Me"	Top 40 Adult Recurrents	1
2001	"Too Little Too Late"	Adult Top 40	13
2001	"Too Little Too Late"	The Billboard Hot 100	86
2001	"Too Little Too Late"	Top 40 Mainstream	40