Maroon (Barenaked Ladies album)
Maroon is the fifth full-length studio album by Barenaked Ladies. The album was the follow-up to 1998's Stunt, the band's most successful album in the United States. Maroon debuted at No. 1 in Canada and No. 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 U.S. It has sold at least 1 million copies in the U.S. alone. With keyboardist Kevin Hearn's leukemia in remission, 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 hit singles : "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 longtime songwriting 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", "Inline Bowline", "Born Human" and "Half a Heart". "That's All, That's All" was also written for the album, and was later recorded for Page's The Vanity Project.
A DVD was also released for the album. However, it does not contain any music videos or live performances of the music. It does, however, contain the hidden bonus track "Hidden Sun".
Track listing
Personnel
Barenaked Ladies
- Jim Creeggan – electric bass, background vocals, handclaps, violin, viola, baritone guitar, glockenspiel, electric double bass, double bass, arco double bass
- Kevin Hearn – organ, synthesizer, piano, accordion, glockenspiel, electric piano, background vocals, clavinet, handclaps , sampling, baritone guitar, vocoder, electric guitar, keyboards, melodica, lead vocals
- Steven Page – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, flute, recorder
- Ed Robertson – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, tambourine, 12-string guitar, handclaps, wah-wah guitar, cabasa, mandolin, banjo
- Tyler Stewart – castanets, drums, tambourine, bells, handclaps, timpani, cowbell, wah wah shaker, background vocals, 808 drums, drum kit, shaker, snare drum, cymbal
Additional personnel
- Jim Scott – vocals
- Roberto "Tiny" Menegoni – percussion
- Party in Studio 3 – Sweet Pea Atkinson, Jane Oppenheimer, Jen Hilliard, and Jim Scott
- Sean Cullen and the male cast of "Shave It"
- Major Scale courtesy of Chris Brown
- Jono Abrams – Faxed thumbs-up
Production
- Don Was – producer
- Jim Scott – engineer
- Jen Hiller - assistant engineer
- Katy Teasdale – assistant engineer
- Michael Scotella - additional engineer
- Brian Gardner - mastering
Charts
| Year | Chart | Position |
| 2000 | 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" | 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" | Billboard Hot 100 | 86 |
| 2001 | "Too Little Too Late" | Top 40 Mainstream | 40 |