We Are the Same

by

The Tragically Hip

Edit

If you are looking for a revisit to the hip of old like how In Between Evolution was likened to Road Apples, you will be disappointed. But the good news is that althought there are few "Rockers" on the cd, it grows on you. I found myself HATING the CD after the first listen, except for "Morning Moon" and "Love Is A First".

However, I am no fairweather fan, I have seen them 30 times in concert and met them 4 times so as with any release since Phantom Power, I had to go back and give the other songs a second chance. That's where "Now The Struggle Has A Name", "Coffee Girl", "Honey, Please", "Frozen In My Tracks", "The Exact Feeling" took on a new face for me.

After the 4th listen of the CD I was hooked. As with anything new, we usually dismiss it and like our old tried and true ways and means.

That being said, this is always the case for me with the Tragically Hip. Songs and albums that I thought were less than their best have stood the test of time. I can look back on Music at Work (2000), In Violet Light (2002) & World Container (2007)and appreciate them all the more. I think their earlier stuff like Up To Here (1989), Road Apples (1991), Fully Completely (1992) and Day For Night (1994) were easier cd's to play for someone and have them be blown away.

So I will say maybe this isn't the CD I would introduce someone to the HIP, but I will say I am glad they don't just turn out the same CD every two years with just a new title and album art. There are organs, horns, violins and some cool chants even on this album.

So who knows maybe this is a good album to introduce someone to the HIP, there certainly are some universal themes of struggle and it is VERY MELLOW. I certainly know it is something I could play for someone like my Mom and she would like it, which is something I wouldn't have been able to do with say, Day For Night. Maybe that's a bad thing for some people but I see it as a group that I already viewed as well rounded and eclectic showing me that they can still evolve and mature as a band.

That's saying a lot for a band that has been around since 1983, is already in the Canadian rock and roll hall of fame, has released 12 CD's and could rest or settle for the tried and true. Not this band, they forge new trails still and I am severely impressed. But maybe it's me becoming more mature as I get older? HHHMMMM. Nah! ;)

I find about half this CD listenable. For some groups, that'd be an accomplishment, but for the Hip (whose other CDs I tend to listen to from start to finish), it's ... ummm ... tragic.

Yes, there *are* 4-5 good cuts. But this is The Hip, so you expect no less. But too many of the tracks are less than stellar, and they'd have been so regardless of the producer. Speaking of whom ...

Bob Rock's production does not play to the group's considerable strengths -- he's smoothed over the edges that make the Hip so fun & refreshing to listen to. Why the band allowed him to do this eludes me. The quest for U.S. MOR/AOR airtime, perhaps? In any event, the World Container production was much more appropriate.

So ... omitting the band's eponymous debut disc, this disc ranks at the bottom, below Music at Work (which I dig out once or twice a year to see if my opinion has changed (not yet)).

Great to Insanely Great:

* Road Apples (MCA, 1991)

* Fully Completely (MCA, 1992)

* Day for Night (MCA, 1994)

* Phantom Power (Universal, 1998)

Good to Very Good

* Up to Here (MCA, 1989)

* Trouble at the Henhouse (MCA, 1996)

* In Violet Light (Universal, 2002)

* In Between Evolution (Universal, 2004)

* World Container (Universal, 2006)

The above is somewhat arbitrary and reflects how I feel today -- and I wouldn't want to be without any of the discs.

But Music at Work and We Are the Same I probably wouldn't miss.