Maybe You Should Drive Review

By BAMBI G, Scene Magazine.

Let it be known that there is life after Gordon. Scarborough's naughty but nice knights in shining armour, the Barenaked Ladies are riding back into town. Although they're not packing a key to the city, they've brought along something more interesting. They come bearing gifts of "gold, frankincense and myrrh" for the coming of Miss Jane St.Clair,a name borrowed from a street corner in Toronto that took a whole new meaning in the mind of Stephen Duffy. Jane is the latest addition to the cast of characters portrayed in tales about: people across the world going mad, free fruit, intermittent and Barbies "doing it" on the first date with a touch of praise for the Thelonious Monk thrown in for good measure. Sound unlikely? It isn't. I promise it all makes perfect sense after 10 or 20 much deserved listenings.

The Barenaked Ladies are still Steven Page, Ed Robertson, brothers Jim and Andy Creeggan and Tyler Stewart. The song writing team that has Steven Page paired with Stephen Duffy works well. Producer, Ben Mink (of k.d lang fame), is a fellow wise enough to let their collective, zany, eclectic influences follow a natural progression.

The significance the Ladies bring to words and diverse musical traditions makes Maybe You Should Drive a definite keeper. Everything Old Is New Again is probably as close as I'll ever come to waltzing with the Barenaked Ladies. The Wrong Man Was Convicted, a lament over a relationship that failed because of a man's lack of commitment, yields this startling couplet: "If I'm again beside your body, don't tell me where it's been/ It's cruel, unusual punishment to kiss fingerprinted skin."