If you have ears and lived through the 90s, you are not a stranger to the music of Steven Page. Page, of course, is a co-founder of Barenaked Ladies in 1988 (inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame this spring) and is perhaps best recognized for the words “It’s been…” on 1998’s “One Week.” Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II is a followup to 2016’s Heal Thyself Pt. I: Instinct, and is Page’s third album since the leaving the band in 2009 (2005’s The Vanity Project and A Singer Must Die, released in 2010 with The Art of Time Ensemble, make up Page’s other full-length albums).

Discipline was released digitally and on CD in September; quality control issues delayed shipment of LP copies until the end of October. While billed as a second part to Instinct, the albums have very little in common in tone; Discipline‘s opening track, “Nothing Special,” incorporates a theme of Instinct‘s “There’s A Melody.” While styled differently, Discipline‘s “Whistling Through The Dark” shares some melody with Instinct’s “Surprise Surprise” (that album’s lead single).

If listening to the LP, side A (tracks 1-5) fit very well into the Steven Page songbook fans known since 2010’s Page One. Much of Discipline sounds like a throwback to the 1970s with lyrics that are distinctly modern – or perhaps distinctly Steven Page. For any longtime fan of Page or Barenaked Ladies, Discipline feels fresh yet familiar.

Side A ends on “Gravity,” a Spanish-inspired rebuke of modern science-deniers, and is a hint at what is to come. A driving guitar and refrain that evokes The Ramones begins Side B and “White Noise” before delving into a classic Page-style musical and lyrical narrative inspired by the 2017 Charlottesville, NC riot. These responses to Trump-era politics marks Page’s first political compositions since his co-write with Ed Robertson and Kevin Hearn on the subtle”Second Best” from Barenaked Ladies’ 2003 Everything To Everyone (the band’s other Bush-era political track, Barenaked Ladies Are Men‘s “Fun & Games” in 2007, being composed solely by Robertson).

“White Noise,” however, is a brief detour from an otherwise personal album. The slower, sadder “Done” feels like a sequel to 1996’s “Break Your Heart” (from Barenaked Ladies’ Born On A Pirate Ship, and still a part of Page’s live performance) if the couple had continued on in a dysfunctional relationship for two decades. Page has openly discussed his long struggle with mental illness––depression and bipolar disorder have shaped his music since writing “Brian Wilson” at age 19 before ever being diagnosed––and two Heal Thyself albums suggest an artist who is trying to do exactly that. While Instinct opens with a monotone “There’s A Melody” and revisits that theme with much more complexity just before the album’s end, Discipline appears to acknowledge the struggle, closing with back-to-back “Whistling Through The Dark” and “Looking For The Light,” the final words (for now) of an artist that is aware of his past and looking forward to his future.

Discipline: Heal Thyself, Pt. II is available on all digital platforms and on CD and LP at stevenpage.com. Steven Page is on tour in the western United States this fall and in Canada beginning in February 2019.