On their last CD, Barenaked Ladies cheekily claimed to be Everything to Everyone. Now here they are, claiming to be me. Or you. Or somebody.

Anyway, it makes you wonder: Are Canada's favourite quirk-poppers having a midlife identity crisis? Hey, it's only natural; after all, they're not the carefree pranksters they used to be.

Last time out, they mostly traded in their silly antics for contemplative, personal roots-pop. On this seventh studio set, their maturity is even more evident. The white-boy hip-hop novelty numbers and pop culture references are gone. The jokes are fewer and further between. Sincerity, sadness and sorrow have replaced the irony and wide-eyed optimism.

Which is not to suggest BLAM is a total downer. Bank Job is a nifty little waltz about nuns and a heist gone wrong. Bull in a China Shop, Sound of Your Voice and Rule the World With Love deliver their trademark bouncy pop crunch. Wind it Up is a feisty breakup rocker with the album's funniest line: "I was a baby when I learned to suck / But you have raised it to an art form."

But it's the exception that proves the rule on this set of pretty, heartbroken ballads and breezy pop-rockers like Easy.

We don't know exactly who or what BNL think they are these days, but if you've been eager for them to grow up and calm down, Barenaked Ladies Are Me might be for you.

Track Listing:

1. Adrift
2. Bank Job
3. Sound of Your Voice
4. Easy
5. Home
6. Bull in a China Shop
7. Everything Had Changed
8. Peterborough and the Kawarthas
9. Maybe You're Right
10. Take It Back
11. Vanishing
12. Rule the World with Love
13. Wind It Up
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