Efforts Not in Vain
It's an interesting business when musicians break away (not break up) from their established bands to form a solo act. It's worked for Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison; for Peter Gabriel and Phil Collins; and for Rob Thomas, to name a few, but I'm sure there are dozens if not hundreds of failed efforts to get a little of the limelight away from one's band (think any member of 'N Sync without the initials J.T.). Armed with this information, I was cautiously excited when I found the MySpace Music profile of Steven Page, one of the lead singers of one of my favorite bands, the Barenaked Ladies. His breakaway effort is The Vanity Project, a singing-songwriting cooperation with British popster Stephen Duffy. From the second I heard "Wilted Rose," the album's second track, on MySpace, I knew that the self-titled album (released a year ago) was a must-have. What I didn't anticipate was just how much Page departed from his They Might Be Giants-inspired Ladies cheek (though the album isn't completely different from some BNL material) and really settled down for twelve tracks of neatly crafted pop.

The first sign that Page is taking a decidedly indie turn on his album comes in the opening seconds of track one, "Hit and Run." A voice out of AM radio starts mumbling under an REM-flavored guitar riff before, all of a sudden, you're hit with some pure pop rock. The opening line of the song whispers "Protest song, everybody sang along," and by the time the song's over, you're reaching for the skip backwards button on your player so you can follow suit. The politically charged rocking continues on "Wilted Rose," a track laced with an addicting harmonica hook and entrancing lyrics. The other standout up-tempo tracks is the ridiculously fun "Baby Loves the Radio" and the stripped down "So. Cal.," a sarcastic ballad to Los Angeles.

Page has flexed his sobered, pensive songwriting muscle a few times in his Ladies career, with gorgeous tracks like Stunt's "Call and Answer," Gordon's "What A Good Boy," and Born on a Pirate Ship's "Break Your Heart." That talent reappears in "That's All, That's All" and the Beatlesque "Here Today and Yesterday." The beauty of the album is that it strikes a nice balance between the slow, sweeping ballads and the lighter, peppier numbers.

It's hard to imagine that an album filled with "Call and Answers" would be engaging, and so the latter half of The Vanity Project settles into a groove that is a bit too comfortable in that mode, though it's far from boring. If Page had slipped another "Wilted Rose" into the mix, it would have taken some pressure off of the last few tracks. Even so, despite its title, The Vanity Project is far from self serving. It's a collection of very good songs that can only add to Page's already sizable credit as a songwriter.

Rating: * * * * of 5