...and I gotta say, it keeps getting stronger and stronger in my estimation. This is a GREAT #$%%#^& RECORD---one of the very best of the Hip's career, maybe THE best after Day For Night. :jump Not to gush or anything...
What about you lot? Is time improving or worsening your opinion of the CD, or is your opinion static?
I stated bout a month ago that It wasn't appealing to that certain something inside me that hearz tha Hip, but since then it has defineatly been creeping up the ladder, this CD has taken it'z time for some reason, maybe it'z that dam great! I absouletly love you're everywhere, great guitar! I think seeing them do it live will be the final nail in my coffin...so to speak. I'm seriously thinkin bout makin the journey to Kingztown for that shindig, that would be 1 hellava site to see!
As I've said many times, like fine wine the Hip just keep gettin' better with age. Every time I give IBE a spin, it keeps getting stronger with different layers revealing themselves upon each listen. All those idiotic critics (including one of my best friends) who say the Hip are done or washed up, I say BAH!!! Screw you all. Creatively this band is rolling along at an astonishing pace, and I'm thankful to be along for the ride. Here's hoping for many more years of great albums and even greater tours from our little Canadian secret, or as some American critics call them: the greatest undiscovered band in the world!
:thumb:
IVL was such a huge disappointment for me, as I've said before, and I have NEVER had a band I like go from the very worst album of their career to the very best. I couldn't believe it was the same band when I heard this album. I have loved it since the moment I got it and I do not think at all that it's somehow premature to label this one of the Great Canadian Rock Albums. People are saying give it time, but you know when you know...you know? Yeah, you know. I can't imagine ever getting sick of this one...works on so many levels and there's always something new and interesting to discover on the album. Plus that BLISTERING guitar work from everyone whose job it is! Fantastic!
Summiteer Wrote:"I'm seriously thinkin bout makin the journey to Kingztown for that shindig, that would be 1 hellava site to see!"
I seriously hope you make it, man. A "once in a lifetime" opportunity. It's a long and expensive trek for you, no doubt. One, I'm sure, you will find incredibly worthwhile......
K-Town Lassie Wrote:Summiteer Wrote:"I'm seriously thinkin bout makin the journey to Kingztown for that shindig, that would be 1 hellava site to see!"
I seriously hope you make it, man. A "once in a lifetime" opportunity. It's a long and expensive trek for you, no doubt. One, I'm sure, you will find incredibly worthwhile......
Yop, I kinda liken this as my pilgrimage as a Hip Fan. Money has to have no bearing, but it may jepordize my Winter tour planz :?
How far of a drive is that for you Summit?
hock:
I love the new Album... but it has yet to rival IVL for me...
What I mean in general is the 3-4 songs on IBE that I just can't get enough of do not quite match up to the 3-4 songs on IVL that I just can't get enough of..... key word..."yet"
grooveless touque
I don't want to start another topic here but I've seen you post your "dissapontment" in IVL - Is there a short answer to what it is you don't like about it ? Do you think it will ever crawl up your charts?
I ask this because I see your 1050+ posts and love for the band... and just get curious?
Jeffro
I loved IVL and think IBE is just a continuation of a twenty-one year natural progression. It's a great album.
for me, IBE is a "good" album and i don't think i will ever consider it "great". there are some really good songs on there (VS, josephine, makeshit, gus) and some ultra-shitty ones (ie: we are family, mean streak, new orleans is beat). the rest of the cd is mediocre. Summer is killing us, Heaven is a better place today, heart of the melt, etc are, like i said, good but not great.
IVL was crap from start to finish. i think i have played it about 20 times since i first bought it 2 years ago.
DFN is the best cd of their career. phantom power was really good, and i would place that 2nd behind DFN.
edit: i was too harsh on IVL. Darkest One, Leave Dark Canuck are good. the rest are not.
grooveless touque Wrote:IVL was such a huge disappointment for me.
I couldn't agree with you more. And I think that (after the fact) the band realized that it wasn't up to snuff, particularly when you read that Canoe article that was posted yesterday that had the interview with Sinclair about the band changing management. He talked about needing to make a change to not get stale and not fall into bad habits. I'm not saying that IVL isn't without some great songs, but from start to finish it is easily their weakest (not counting the EP).
But IBE kicks total ass. Clearly they made the right call when deciding to change management (from an artistic point of view). Hopefully their new management can now get up to speed as the tour starts with some more frequent website updates, and some goodies for Hip Club members.
Call me closed-minded, but IBE was in my car-player for over a month and was the only thing I listened to. When it finally came out (briefly) it was so I could listen to IVL & UTH for comparative purposes, and to check out the awseome Darien Lake boot that's floating around some of the BT sites (to the taper: Thank you, kindly).
From the first listen to right now, IBE blows me away! I have to agree with KillerWhaleTank...this may just be the best release yet.
If I can't break trhe pattern (IBE - new boot - IBE- new boot-etc.) I may have to cancel my XM subscription.
Well Jeffro, two people have followed up my comments with their own justifications of having similar opinions, so hopefully you're getting the answers you want!
For me it's a simple matter of the quality of the songwriting. I do believe that Are You Ready is the worst Hip song since Coconut Cream. It seems like such a throwaway, just a short punchy pointless song with lyrics I hate. It smacks of a lack of effort. I like the first half of Use It Up but it's too repetitive and Gord's vocals don't carry the effort or passion that most of the songs on IBE have. Things really pick up for precisely one song - The Darkest Ones is one of their best songs in my opinion. I like everything about it - it has an interesting lead and accompanying guitar rhythm to it, the lyrics I genuinely enjoy, and the chorus is a soaring climax that Gord puts his all into. The band got this one right.
However, I was surprisingly BORED with the rest of the album...none of it does anything for me. I loved the first half of Good Life the first time I heard it, but haven't liked it since. I mean, come on...it's a two minute song repeated twice in its entirety! Very repetitive, and after you've been listening a few times that guitar line seems so monotonous. Silver Jet took a lot of effort to figure out why I didn't like it. I like the lyrics, I like the guitar riff, but this song just has never clicked with me. It's all about production here. The song sounds way too laboured, way too shiny and glossy. The production ruins everything and I simply cannot stand to listen for the sheer "feel" of the song.
The rest of the album has only one highlight for me: Leave. I love this song, and it's the only reason I'm glad I bought the album (since The Darkest Ones was a single). I HATE All Tore Up (another effortless throwaway) and Beautiful Thing (no rhythm, no flow, terrible vocals) and I am indifferent to everything else, having gotten sick of them by the time I'd listened to the album half a dozen times.
In short (and I realize it's probably far too late to be short!) the songwriting is just not there, the energy and vibrancy that comes through so well is not there, and all the ambitious attempts meander off into oblivion for me. The terrible glossy, studiofied neuters any potential impact these songs might have, either from a live rock fan's point of view or an intellectual's point of view (IE, deriving pleasure from the lyrics and the way they're sung). I ain't no movie star, but I just can't get behind this one! It got away from me like the fish with Homer's cheese doodle ... and like Homer, I sat there day and night waiting for it to come back but finally accepted that it wouldn't and gave up. I don't even have the album anymore.
Yes, I'm a huge fan of the Hip, but I'm also a huge fan of Bob Dylan, who has albums I hate (Knocked Out Loaded? puh-leeze!), and Blue Rodeo (Casino) and Neil Young (Landing On Water)...the list goes on. The fact is, if you did a job for 20 years, you've have ups and downs. You aren't always at your finest. And when it comes to wildly creative artists like our own TTH, stumbling once in a while is only natural. When you create things, they aren't always what you envisioned, and when you're in a certain time and place (IE their negative management decisions and production choices) the art suffers too. We are just EXTREMELY fortunate that, on the grand scale of things, each Hip fan can only think of one album (at most) that they dislike!!
Now obviously, this is all one man's opinion, but I would have to say I hear greater consensus on IVL being a weak album than any other single alum.
dyersbay Wrote:How far of a drive is that for you Summit? hock:
Well, from Inuvik to Edmonton it'z roughly 3700 Km'z, so from Edmoskinz to Kingztown I'd hazard to say anudder-well Edmo to Stoon 550 and change-Stoon to the Peg-600& change I think,The Peg to Kingztown maybe what? 700 km max, couldn't be more than that
cratch: So in a nut-shell, 1 long F*CK'n drive
hock: , to long for me, I'm gonna fly :wink:
am i the only one who finds it really hard to read summiteer's posts?
cratch: :oops: