Barenaked Ladies released their first album Buck Naked in 1989, but it didn’t set the world on fire. Their second release Gordon in 1992 contained the singles Brian Wilson, Be My Yoko Ono and If I Had $1,000,000 and established the band in their native Canada and the USA. Maybe You Should Drive followed in 1994 and Born on a Pirate Ship in 1996, building on their reputation and gaining them a substantial fan base. The live album Rock Spectacle followed in 1996, demonstrating how good they are live, but the international success was still missing. However this finally came in 1998 with the release of Stunt. This album contained the international hits One Week and It’s All Been Done and made the band an overnight success after nine years of recording. The Don Was produced Maroon is their latest studio album, released in 2000. This album is yet to emulate the success of Stunt outside of North America, but the release of Disc One: All Their Greatest Hits (1991 – 2001) is another step in the right direction to promote previous albums.

The second DVD release from this Canadian fun time band makes a terrific companion to the first release Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked In America. For this second disc Barenaked Ladies – Barelaked Nadies we are given a collection of their music videos along with a nice selection of live songs. The music videos have a running time of 64:52 and the live footage 29:52, giving terrific value.

Music videos track listing:

Live track listing:

The videos and live portion are a terrific balance of catchy pop songs and the more serious side of the band. They are great comedians and entertainers and this shows well in both their videos and in the live forum. A highlight from the music videos is the final track, Thanks That Was Fun, where portions of previous videos have been used and the band have added new lip movements to suit the song. This is done extremely well and apart from a couple of areas, you wouldn’t know the effect had been used. The live set included is from one show and offers great continuity. The humour of the band is obvious and the adoring audience love the performance. Overall this is a wonderful collection of videos and a good sample of the band live. Fans of the band will be more than happy with this release and those not yet familiar with them should take a look.

Being a collection of videos, the picture quality varies. All are presented in full frame and offer excellent quality overall. There are standard problems such as aliasing, slight grain and colour saturation, but these are extremely minor and cause no problems of note. The live footage is also very good and apart from the standard issues associated with live performances this is also of a very high standard.

Audio is supplied in a choice of English Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo and DD 5.1 surround. The stereo track offers CD quality, however the inclusion of a DD 5.1 track is a real bonus. Music is well balanced for both the videos and live footage and use of surrounds is constant. The subwoofer gets quite a bit of action and audio synch is never a problem. Overall this is an excellent audio track.

There are a couple of nice extras with this release. First is a commentary from most of the band for the videos section. This is not your standard commentary though, as this one allows the viewer to actually see the guys doing the commentary. This is done by using the multiple angle function and is a terrific idea. The commentary is very enjoyable and shows the wonderful senses of humour these guys have. There are also some DVD-ROM features that include weblinks and a Barenaked Ladies Revoice Studio where you can record your own voice over the hit One Week and see if you can get the �Chickedy China the Chinese chicken� bit right.

As said earlier, this is a terrific collection of videos and live footage that fans of the band will love. For those that are yet to discover this band, the first release Barenaked Ladies – Barenaked In America may be a better place to start, but this is also a good introduction. They are infectious and extremely entertaining but above all, they are talented musicians.