There's little doubt that The Tragically Hip have been the biggest band in Canada over the last 25 years. On recent albums, much like U2 and R.E.M., the band has been dining out on past glories. That's why I approach every new Tragically Hip album with trepidation.
Their new album, We Are The Same, is the band's twelfth studio effort. On this one they are reunited with mega-producers Bob Rock who helmed the band's last album World Container.
We Are The Same gets off on a promising start. "Morning Moon" hearkens back to the band's roots rock past with some gritty guitar work. The momentum keeps up with nice solo and subtle keyboard on the sleeper "Honey, Please".
Living up to their name, the band shows that they are still hep by name dropping Cat Power and Beck on "Coffee Girl".
Rock has the band reach beyond their comfort zone by adding string arrangements to several tracks. Unfortunately the concept is better than the execution. The strings help make the epic "The Depression Suite" into an interminable 9-minute opus.
Things are worse on "Now the Struggle Has a Name". It's typical of everything that has been wrong with Tragically Hip albums of late. The track is an overblown effort, trying way way too hard to make itself seem important. All the fun and spontaneity has been sapped from it.
There is a fair amount of unremarkable songs on the album (trying not to use the term 'filler'). Tracks like "The Exact Feeling" are eminently forgettable.
Vocally, Gord Downie seems pretty indifferent here. It takes until the powerful "Love Is a First" for it to seem like he gives a damn.
One addition that does work is the mandolin on "Queen of the Furrows". The song may be one of the band's best all-around rockers in the last decade. We also get a fantastic hoe down at the end of "Speed River".
We Are The Same is a spotty album. There are some good-to-very-good tracks, some toss offs, and some down right awful stuff. That said, it is a solid step in the right direction.
The Tragically Hip play a five night stand at Massey Hall in Toronto on May 11, 12, 14, 15, 16.
Best tracks: "Queen of the Furrows",
Track listing for We Are The Same:
- Morning Moon
- Honey, Please
- The Last Recluse
- Coffee Girl
- Now the Struggle Has a Name
- The Depression Suite
- The Exact Feeling
- Queen of the Furrows
- Speed River
- Frozen In My Tracks
- Love Is a First
- Country Day
5.5/10
2 praise/complaints:
I have been listening to this album pretty steadily for a week now and I can't concur with your assessment. As with most Hip albums, particularly the last 5 or 6, you have to listen to them several times with an open mind before you come to any sense of the work. Now that I have been through the album at least a dozen times, I find this musical departure refreshing and inovative. I thought at first that the Depression Suite was a little self indulgent, but I see it now as a well articulated emotional journey. Lots of legendary bands have written and recorded lengthy OPUS type pieces, why not one of Canada's most long standing ensembles.
If you want the Hip to sound the same as they did in the good old days, I suggest you plug Day for Night or Road Apples into your audio device of choice and fill your boots. That being said, listen to this album several times with an open mind and it might just surprise you.
I think you are totally off base here - this, in my opinion, will probably be seen in time as one of the finest albums of their career. And in my opinion when people consider the albums they have made as resting on past laurals I think it is a journalistic weakness, not artistic. World Container, Family Band, Pretend, Luv(sic), Vaccination Scar, It Can't Be Nashville Every Night, If New Orleans Is Beat, Are We Family, Goodnight Josephine, Dire Wolf, Throwing Off Glass, Leave, Darkest One, It's A Good Life If You Don't Weaken, and all of Music @ Work - these are not the product of a band resting on its laurals - and are better songs then most of the crap that is out there. You just have to actually listen - the new album is a classic - I promise it will come to pass
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