Barenaked Ladies - Maroon (20th Anniversary Deluxe Edition) (2020)

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Barenaked Ladies' Maroon, we offer a song by song reflection on why the Canadian group's fifth LP is so triumphant. It's been 20 years since Barenaked Ladies released Maroon, which is arguably their best album but also the one that carried with it the weightiest expectations. After all, they were coming off the success of Stunt and its #1 hit single, "One Week", and the pressure to produce another hit was, presumably, immense. The band headed out to Hollywood to record the album with veteran producer Don Was; meanwhile, in both their native Canada and U.S. border towns like Detroit (where I lived), the band had been a big deal for years. They even played at Pine Knob—the city's 15,000-seat amphitheater—in 1996, a full two years before "One Week" made them a household name.