TORONTO – The Barenaked Ladies’ last album, 2010’s “All in Good Time,” followed a dark period for the Toronto band and it showed: the usually light-hearted popsters swapped congenial hijinx for sombre self-reflection, which even extended to the album’s starkly monochromatic cover.
Everything about their new album, “Grinning Streak,” indicates that the Toronto band has re-embraced the goofy, freewheeling side it temporarily left behind following the departure of founding member Steven Page, even while retaining some of the maturity of their previous album.
“You could not ignore the events that happened (before ‘All in Good Time’),” drummer Tyler Stewart said in a recent interview at a Toronto diner, seated next to frontman Ed Robertson.
“It was our first time as a four piece. You couldn’t ignore the fact that we needed to redefine ourselves. There’s still some fun stuff on ‘All in Good Time,’ but there’s also some emotional stuff — dealing with a breakup essentially.
“So I’d say that the hopefulness is definitely back on this album.”
Indeed, the new record — hitting stores Tuesday — features a number of breezy, feel-good tunes with a quirky streak. “Odds Are” finds Robertson gearing up almost to “One Week” speed for a cheerfully melodic tune about the general unlikelihood of various disasters, “Smile” is a sunny blast of acoustic guitar-driven nostalgia while “Did I Say That Out Loud?” is a snappy stomper with sweet lovelorn lyrics.
In fact, many of these tunes feature an upbeat perspective on love — one that’s surprisingly up-front for the typically sly Robertson, who often wraps such sentiment in metaphor or irony.
Robertson, clad in a grey sport jacket with a scarf loosely wrapped around his neck, nods in acknowledgment when asked whether this record marks a more direct lyrical approach.
“I wasn’t afraid to put my heart fairly firmly on my sleeve on this record,” he said. “I think I’ve kind of made career out of being a little bit cagey and using a lot of metaphors and skullduggery.
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“But I wanted to write some really sincere, direct songs on this record, and enjoyed doing that. It was an emotional process and a really rewarding one…. I wasn’t afraid to write some things that were a little closer to home.”
It seems, then, that “Grinning Streak” is perhaps a better indicator of the new-look Ladies than their previous record, which was issued right in the midst of several storms.
First, there was the departure of Page — said to be mutual — after the bespectacled singer with the impressive vocal range was involved in a high-profile cocaine bust (the charges were later dropped). Meanwhile, Robertson endured the death of his mother and was involved in a small plane crash outside Bancroft, Ont.
“That was a pretty cacophonous couple years,” he says.
“Grinning Streak” still probes some of those wounds but from a different, more hopeful perspective than was possible three years ago.
The record also charts new musical territory for the band. “It was a very sonically adventurous record,” Robertson says, and that fact announces itself instantly upon listening to album opener “Limits,” which kicks in with clattering electronics, a heavily digitized drum thump and waves of bass.
The production touches — which, combined with the increased presence of acoustic guitars, leads to an interesting marriage of old and new — reflect the Ladies’ affection for some elements of pop music.
“We consume all of that stuff and listen to that stuff and it’s fun to have what is essentially an acoustic, melodic rock song and push it in that more pop direction — as opposed to having no song and pushing it in that pop direction, because there’s a lot of production tricks to make things sound pretty exciting when there’s no song there, really,” Robertson said.
Although Stewart and Robertson insist the transition to a quartet following Page’s departure was natural and only required a few shows to get adjusted, it still seems that the record’s instrumentation is more assured and confident this time out.
And Stewart does acknowledge that the roles have changed.
“Obviously there was a bit more room for everybody as well with one less guy,” he said. “So rather than try to find a new role, they just stepped up their role. For instance a guy like Jim Creeggan, who often … wrote some songs and arrangements and stuff, really got into producing vocals, and into that kind of end of it. And onstage too, he plays a little less upright bass now, he plays electric bass, so he gets to roam all over the place and he’s a big tall dancing guy.
“Myself, I started singing a lot more,” he added. “Kevin (Hearn) has always played tons of instruments, and Ed is essentially the frontman of the band now. We’ve all morphed into these expanded roles, and it feels great. Because I think everybody’s more empowered.”
Robertson certainly is. He’s extremely confident in the new record, which he says isn’t necessarily a given each time he produces new material.
“It might be the first time in my career that I don’t give a (crap) what anybody thinks,” he says, in fact using a saltier term beginning with the letter F. “I’m so proud of the record.”
Which isn’t to say he doesn’t care if people like it.
It’s simply unlikely, he says, that his grin fades either way.
“It’s just that I’m not insecure about this record,” he said. “I really do want people to like it, because I’m super proud of it, but my pride in the record and my satisfaction in the process of the record doesn’t hinge on how people react to it.
“I think this is actually the first time I’ve felt like I’ve been sending the record to like everybody I know — all my friends, everyone I run into, because I just love love it. I really love this record. And it’s great to feel that level of confidence. I think I wrote the songs I was trying to write, and we made them sound the way I hoped they could sound. It’s kind of the ultimate. It was a totally fulfilling artistic experience, without compromise.”
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