Maroon

Frat-rock japester Mojo Nixon proposed that in a world in which Elvis is everywhere, Michael J Fox is the only human with no Elvis in him whatsoever. Further reflection suggests that in a world in which gutter-trawling excess is required beat-combo behaviour, only Fox's fellow Canadians Barenaked Ladies--punsome frat-rock japesters for those too clever and dorky for most frats' taste--are the only band with no Iggy Pop in them whatsoever. Instead, some six albums in, the barbershop-harmonising, pop-literate thirtysomething quintet prefer a state of arrested-adolescence precocity, frolicking in the whitebread suburban nostalgia, lawn sprinklers and gym shorts of Maroon's ingratiatingly whimsical first single "Pinch Me". To give them their due, the tuneful confectionery on offer for those stout of heart enough to negotiate the dread word "wacky" are many: the blissfully bouncy John S Sebastian-in-excelsis "Go Home", the Beautiful South-esque black comedy of "Tonight Is The Night I Fell Asleep At The Wheel" and a slightly smirky "Conventioneers", and a hidden track that's the improbable spit of Lambchop. Oddly, it's not the zaniness quotient elsewhere that grates most, despite a luridly operatic "Sell, Sell, Sell" almost as tiresome as the band's recent faux-rap hit "One Week", but the too-frequent appearance of anonymously bright, toppy, radio-friendly fodder ("Too Little, Too Late", "Never Do A Anything", "Humour Of The Situation") that could as easily be Matchbox Twenty. Given the pop smarts of both these solidly wholesome kid-adults and producer Don Was, merely sounding like any other pop band sells the Ladies short. --Jennifer Nine