Maroon

by

Barenaked Ladies

Edit

Maroon (2000) is the fifth full-length studio album by Barenaked Ladies. The follow-up to 1998's Stunt, Maroon reached #1 Canada (their second to do so after 1992's Gordon) and #5 in the United States, selling a million units in America alone. With keyboardist Kevin Hearn's leukemia battle won, and with an instinct to downplay 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). "That's All, That's All" was also written for the album, and was later recorded for Page's The Vanity Project.