Everything to Everyone

After recording and touring incessantly from 1995 until 2001, the quintet opted to take some time off for 2002 and most of 2003. It was the first long-term hiatus for the band since their inception. Upon returning to the recording studio to begin recording what would become Everything to Everyone, BNL adopted a new policy of keeping the writing exclusively within the band members. This resulted in increased contribution from Jim Creeggan and Kevin Hearn, and the band ended up recording more songs than usual (which in turn resulted in a 14-song album plus a bonus track). The album was recorded in Los Angeles, and was the first album the band recorded following the inception of their online blog. This allowed the band to communicate with their fans on a continual basis during the recording, and gave additional insight into the creative process.

The band took to the facility's B-studio near the end of the recording to record versions of the album's songs on acoustic instruments. This was quickly set up, and drummer Tyler Stewart ended up using a drum kit assembled from various unusual objects. The band performed eleven songs which comprised the entire released album except for "Shopping", "Unfinished", "War on Drugs" and the bonus track "Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!". This acoustic session proved successful, and a similar performance would be undertaken for their next album, Barenaked Ladies Are Me (abbreviated as BLAM).

The album's cover was painted by Canadian Chris Woods, and depicts the band in profile displaying a white flag of surrender. The title text was displayed over the flag, though to preserve the meaning of the white flag, the album title was not printed on the cover itself. It was instead placed as a sticker on the transparent wrapping, and was "flat", not wavy to match the flag's contours. For the special edition, the title was on the clear plastic sleeve, and matched the flag's waves. The original painting, a 60" x 60" oil on canvas, reportedly hangs at Page's farmhouse studio, Fresh Baked Woods.

Tracks recorded but not included on the album:

• "Statue of Los Angeles" (unreleased) – a Hearn song; released on his album The Miracle Mile
• "Sign Me Up" (unreleased) – described as "basically us swearing our heads off for six minutes"
• "Adrift" (re-recorded for BLAM, and released on the album Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before)
• "What a Let Down" (re-recorded for BLAM)
• "I Can, I Will, I Do" (previously recorded on Disc One, and re-recorded for BLAM; appears on iTunes Originals - Barenaked Ladies. Later released on Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before).
• "Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!" (bonus track on the special edition's DVD, and b-side on the UK single for "Celebrity". Later released on Stop Us If You've Heard This One Before).

As with each of their early albums, the band recorded one song, "Sign Me Up", completely naked. Everything to Everyone is the band’s last album for which a naked track (recorded in the nude) was recorded.

The album was released in three versions:

• The standard 14-track album
• A limited edition, marked with a sticker, that contained three bonus tracks from the acoustic session
• A special edition in a threefold digipack with plastic sleeve; with the standard CD, and a bonus DVD labeled Everything Else (containing DVD-Audio of the album including bonus track "Yes! Yes!! Yes!!!", and both video and stereo-audio forms of the acoustic show, and several video clips from the recording studio)

The album's first single was "Another Postcard", which many fans perceived as an attempt by the record company to repeat the success of hit singles "One Week" from Stunt and "Pinch Me" from Maroon, which have similar styles and rap-based vocals. Though the band appeared on a number of major U.S. talk shows to promote it, the single was not significantly successful. The band supported the album release with a U.S. tour called the Peepshow tour, which was not a typical promotional tour for the band and was seen as being somewhat geared towards the band's biggest fans, rather than promoting the album to casual fans. Everything to Everyone debuted in the Canadian and US Top 10, but dropped fairly quickly down the charts. At the time it was only the band's second album to have not at least been certified Gold in the US, along with 1994's Maybe You Should Drive.

The album's second single, "Testing 1,2,3", was released early in 2004 with its own music video, coinciding with a more traditional arena tour. A different single, "Maybe Katie", was released to radio in Canada. The album, however, did not see a significant resurgence in sales.

A third single, "For You", was released on a single with the album version and a live version from Glasgow, Scotland, but did not receive a video. The song received little airplay. In the UK, "Celebrity" was released as a radio and commercial single.

All tracks are written by Steven Page and Ed Robertson, except where noted.

• Everything to Everyone at Metacritic