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I found Screamo Gord ended with the FC tour - I ended up giving them another chance re: live shows after that.

carebread Wrote:I found Screamo Gord ended with the FC tour - I ended up giving them another chance re: live shows after that.

That was the only Hip tour I've ever skipped due to a lack of interest. Then I remember watching a few Youtube clips from those shows and I thought Gord's vocals sounded much improved from the previous couple of tours. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he also stop playing guitar on stage around that time? I got the impression that he was putting in a concerted effort to concentrate more on his singing for that tour, and the results spoke for themselves. He sounded great.

direwolf74 Wrote:That was the only Hip tour I've ever skipped due to a lack of interest. Then I remember watching a few Youtube clips from those shows and I thought Gord's vocals sounded much improved from the previous couple of tours. And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't he also stop playing guitar on stage around that time? I got the impression that he was putting in a concerted effort to concentrate more on his singing for that tour, and the results spoke for themselves. He sounded great.

I missed the WATS tour (canceled) so wasn't going to miss NFPA. Was the end of the tour and I thought Gord's voice was shot as he was screaming quite a bit and it seemed Gord and Paul were struggling on the harmonies to try to keep it together. Reading after the fact, it seemed that was par for the course at that point although there were some very solid performances that night (especially Titanic and Springtime).

Went to FC tour and was very glad to see that Gord was focused on singing - seemed on point through the entire show and while his voice wasn't want it was in the 90's, it was certainly a huge improvement over the previous tour.

I don't recall if he played guitar on NFPA but I'm sure he did as I remember how much fun it was to see him all over the stage throughout the FC and noted that he didn't play so I'm 99% sure it was FC where he stopped playing.

Shane

Killer Whale Tank Wrote:The most *interesting* track here is "Man Machine Poem." Gorgeous chords, a really different sonic palette for the band - a musical step forward. I don't understand a word of the second verse ('the egg thief??') but the first and especially third verse are tremendous lyrics. I would have preferred a more restrained vocal from Gord, but ultimately it's a remarkable cut.

My one wish for NFPA is exactly this... more vocal restraint from Gord. This statement is going to be tantamount to treason for a Hip fan, but NFPA was the first Hip record I had to turn down the volume in the car, and it's entirely due to Gord's over-singing. It feels like he is pushing his vocals to places that he just can't quite reach and in doing so he is creating near cringe-worthy moments in songs, predominantly in the song choruses. The word "spirit" in the chorus of "Modern Spirit" and several moments in "About This Map", such as the word "forget" in the line "Forget about this Map", come immediately to mind.

With regards to the song MMP, it visits new territory for the Hip by way of it's very minimalist lyrics. Take the third verse:

Yer beau
-Tiful
Terrific
Your eyes
Empty
Pacifics

Gord takes 30 seconds to sing seven words, even using beautiful to cover two lines of the song. This "less is more" approach is something he would re-visit on "Secret Path", particularly in the song "Here, Here, and Here". As for the song itself, MMP provides a nice counterpoint to the opener "At Transformation", which is essentially a paint-by-numbers Hip tune (which is not to say that I don't love it... I do), although I don't think I would enjoy a full album of songs in that vocal style.

Even though I now enjoy NFPA more than I originally did (my first impression was that it felt like a tired album), I feel the band was on a slide from WC to WATS to NFPA. That downward sprial was finally reversed with the MMP album.

I liked NFPA more than WATS (which I put as the recording low point -- I like WC, but maybe the Bob Rock production was a bit too slick on WATS). For shows, I saw a few on this tour. The Kingston show with the Arkells opening was a solid one. Also saw Syracuse, which was ear-bleeding loud and Gord was screaming over the volume. Was a pretty good set list, but the show itself was really only memorable for volume (and a guy proposed to his girlfriend on the floor mid-song).

I never saw any show where I'd say the band mailed it in, and saw somewhere close to 100 shows, but these ones were maybe the least inspired . With the benefit of history, Gord had a lot of stuff going on in his life at this time, pre-dating his own bad news.

edgoffin Wrote:I liked NFPA more than WATS (which I put as the recording low point -- I like WC, but maybe the Bob Rock production was a bit too slick on WATS).

Comparing the two, NFPA and WATS only (not any other albums), I'd have to put my like for them about equal. I do think NFPA is an overall stronger album....but WATS has The Depression Suite. Enough said right there IMO.

cochise Wrote:

edgoffin Wrote:I liked NFPA more than WATS (which I put as the recording low point -- I like WC, but maybe the Bob Rock production was a bit too slick on WATS).

Comparing the two, NFPA and WATS only (not any other albums), I'd have to put my like for them about equal. I do think NFPA is an overall stronger album....but WATS has The Depression Suite. Enough said right there IMO.

I agree that WATS and NFPA are on near equal footing (at the bottom of the Hip catalogue for me). Many different ways to compare albums but my reasoning for picking WATS over NFPA is that it has more high points for me. I enjoy The Depression Suite, The Last Recluse, and Love is a First (and maybe Morning Moon) more than I enjoy any single song on NFPA. On the flip side of that I dislike more songs on WATS than I do on NFPA, such as The Exact Feeling and Queen of the Furrows, which are worse than anything on NFPA. The latter song does have a blistering, yet out-of-place, solo (it doesn't really fit the song) but it also contains one of my least favourite Downie lines: "This is how I feel, hens cluck and roosters crow". It gives me shame to sing along to that line.

I just threw my LP on for the first listen on vinyl in a while - thought about putting the cans on but was afraid I wouldn't hear my kids if they started tearing down the house.

At Transformation - like the big power chords and pace of the song. Not the most interesting but a solid opener.

MMP - as mentioned earlier, great tune. Nice build up in the intro and lyrically interesting

Lookahead - fun song and can't help but think of the video

We Want to Be It - love the imagery in this one as well as the end of the first verse

Streets Ahead - like the song; not sure about almost clipping but I think it would have benefited from more dynamics as far as different passages.

Now For Plan A - love the hypnotic feel and progression on this

Modern Spirit - solid tune - think some restraint in the vocals would have helped. Some interesting fills in this one that are nice in the absence of any solos

About this Map - like the intro and lyrics as well as the overall flow. Not sold on the chorus or bridge

Take Forever -ok song, think the chorus is pretty solid but the the rest of it doesn't really do much for me

Done and Done - really dig this - from the muted intro to the quiet verses with the build to chorus. Like the imagery throughout

Goodnight - love this song and everything about it - wish I had seen it live

Shane

I have a strong negative reaction to NFPA and the 4 live shows I saw from that era (1 in 2011 when they were playing streets ahead and we want to be it) and 3 from 2013, including the Kingston show. The setlists were dull, screamo gord was at his peak, the band seemed bored, and I did not like the album at all, bar for at transformation, Attawapiskat and the two songs with sarah harmer.

As someone else above had said, if not for them playing my favourite album all the way through in 2015, I probably would have been done with them live, at least before the bad news in 2016. (And the FC shows were fantastic.)

potsie Wrote:Even though I now enjoy NFPA more than I originally did (my first impression was that it felt like a tired album), I feel the band was on a slide from WC to WATS to NFPA. That downward sprial was finally reversed with the MMP album.

For me there was a slight downward spiral that started with IBE. It's my least favorite Hip album. I know a lot of people like it, but that album does nothing for me (except for the artwork, which is probably my favorite of all their albums). Adam Kasper's rougher live-off-the-floor approach was perfect for this band, but to me there's really only 4 or 5 quality songs on that record surrounded by a lot of filler, and I felt they were kinda spinning their wheels on that one. Personally I think WC was a much more focused and cohesive album overall, even though I despise Bob Rock's excessive production style. It's not exactly a return to form, but I still prefer it to IBE. I think the band purposely set out to make a big, loud, slick-sounding rock album (hence the hiring of Rock). For the most part I think they succeeded. There are some killer songs on that disc that I still enjoy despite the Bob Rock sheen (Ocean, Rink, Kids, Last Night I Dreamed, Drop-Off, and Family Band are all great).

Then comes WATS. Another album with too much filler and only a handful of standouts (Morning Moon, Last Recluse, Struggle, Depression Suite, Country Day). Not to mention they left one of the best songs from those sessions, Skeleton Park, on the cutting room floor in favor of mediocre songs like Coffee Girl and Queen of the Furrows. It's one of those rare Hip albums that I hardly ever listen to.

NFPA was a marked improvement from the Bob Rock era with better songs and slightly better production (although a bit muddy in spots as I mentioned earlier). It's a fairly solid Hip album that for me falls somewhere in the middle of their catalogue. I really like At Transformation, MMP, The Lookahead, NFPA, Modern Spirit, Done & Done, and Attawapiskat in particular.

Which brings us to the excellent MMP album. Personally I think it's the best thing they've done since Phantom Power, and I agree it definitely reversed any downward spiral the band may have been in at the time. It's the kind of album I've been wanting them to make for over a decade. I think songs like Machine, World Possessed, What Blue, In Sarnia, and Ocean Next can easily stand with their best work. I have a feeling that once the dust settles on the Hip's remarkable career, it'll be considered a late-career masterpiece by most fans.

One of the other reasons I would have WATS slightly edging out NFPA is Downie's over-reliance on the use of phrase and word repetition as a melodic device on NFPA. I think it subconsciously exhausts me to hear all that repetition and is part of the reason why by the time I reach track 9 or 10, I'm feeling done with the album (only to be rewarded for making it to the end by the mighty Goodnight Attawapiskat). It may also be another reason why the song MMP stands out from the rest of album as it is, strangely, the only song on the entire album not to repeat a word or short phrase at least three times. Here's what I mean:

1. At Transformation – “Oh, what a glittering chance, Oh, what a glittering chance, Oh, what a glittering chance”
2. MMP – none
3. The Lookahead – “It's a power of, power of, power of”
4. We Want to Be it – “Drip, drip, drip”
5. Streets Ahead – “Wait, wait, wait, wait”
6. NFPA – “Yeah, I know, I know, I know”
7. The Modern Spirit – “Can't you just hear it, hear it, hear it?”
8. About this Map – “You want to, want to, want to”
9. Take Forever – “I am, I am, I am, I am in that chair”
10. Done and Done – “Yeah, through, through Through and through”
11. Goodnight Attawapiskat – “You're on your way You're on your way You're on the way”

Great comments on NFPA here. 5 years from release date gives us a deeper perspective on the album and its place in Hip canon. I used to ranked this as my least favourite Hip album...mostly criticisms with some of the production/mixing choices...but after buying it on vinyl this year, my opinions have changed. Take Forever, as an example, sounds so much better on vinyl. In fact, the whole album just feels better on vinyl...if that makes any sense. I didn't like At Transformation that much when it came out...but love it now. I no longer rank it...or any album as my least favourite. For me, each album is like a chapter in my most favourite book. I'm grateful for it all! Don't get me wrong, like many of you here, I have very strong opinions on each album. It's part of being a fan! I love the discussion/debates.

My current go-to songs from the album are: At Transformation, Man Machine Poem, The Lookahead, The Modern Spirit, Take Forever. Oh, and because 'About This Map' is alphabetically first on my iphone songs, it ALWAYS automatically starts playing when I plug my phone in in car. Been doing this for years! That drives me a little nuts, lol.

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In regards to About This Map always playing first

i saw that article the other day. i have never had that problem, though. does it only happen when you connect via usb?

That man is a genius! Why didn't I think of that! And, yes, it's only when I plug in to USB port.