Yes! CMG is terrific!!!!!! Wouldn't be awesome if the boys played Chancellor at one of the shows?
Toronto #4 is alright, I really like The Rules.
CMG is a great record. Such a beautiful sounding record.
CMG - I would have to list it as my #2 "Hip" record.
I love it that much.
The Rules...
Perfect as the first song of the encore...
Here's what I don't get: why haven't the Hip more fully explored that wonderfully muscular 'folk' sound they display in tunes like '38 years Old,' 'Wheat Kings,' 'Scared,' 'Thomson Girl,' 'Bobcaygeon,' etc.? When I was suffering through their M@W and (to a lesser extent) IVL phase---during which time Downie was producing those awesome solo discs---I kept wondering why they didn't switch gears a bit and try their hand at an album devoted much more heavily to that sound.
Well, they are a rock band. I am happy with the Hip's output. I don't want to see them do the Neil Young/Bob Dylan thing and have two distinct personas in the folk and rock worlds.
I think Downie's folky, rootsy stuff off to the side nicely encapsulates that side of his creative potential. For now, I'm perfectly happy with one or two such songs on each Hip record. I'm not saying you're wrong, I think that's an interesting idea. I just don't think I want to hear the Hip 'devote' an album to that pursuit.
Love 'em both. Just two beautiful, well written tunes.
The Rules is saved by the "Salesman says this vacuum's guaranteed/ It could suck an ancient virus from the sea" line ... because that is pure GD and no one else would ever think of singing that in mid-career.
Toronto #4 is excellent, excellent, excellent. It really marks the effective end of M@W, with As I Wind Down the Pines like an epilogue (and three mistakes in between*). Such an odd juxtaposition with Elaborate (Toronto #2) on Coke Machine Glow.
In other news, Membership is a bit of a lowlight, in my view, on Phantom Power. A song that was never as good as it could have been -- like Save the Planet. But again, it has such key lines--"Bring on the springtime, bring on the houseflies, bring on the butterscotch" comes to mind--that it's impossible to dismiss.
(That, on a side note, is why every song in the Hip catalogue is redeemable. Every song, that is, except Evelyn.)
Good Life never should have been a single (especially not the first single) on IVL. The Darkest One should have been. And everytime they think of playing Good Life in concert, they should decided to play Darkest One instead.
In the conduit of Vesuvius,
CT
* The Bear's not that bad.
My first Hip show 02/18/99 - Hamilton, heard "The Rules" during the second encore! A great softer sounding song to play live.
-later
The Rules - feh. Whatever. Bottom of the list off PP for me.
TO #4 - studio: it's ok. Live: I really liked it.
Similarly, I like Are We Family better live than studio as I'm sure will be the case with NO is Beat (hopefully I get this once at the 3-4 remaining shows I'm attending).
I'm John Cage and I endorse these opinions.
Toronto #4 - :thumb: When I heard what it was about it got even better
Rules - :? meh
Have to agree that Good Life is indeed a momentum killer. I don't know how it could be changed, but you hate to call a great song like that into question.
Jeff
Darkest One should have been and never was the lead single.... what a tune...The Rules I never really disliked or got excited about... but TORONTO #4 has always been a stand out for me... This song came out around the time my grandmother was ill and passed on like Gord's so I identified with the lyrics.... and the music itself sends me off somewhere.... for 2 minutes or so and then leaves me wanting to hear more of it....
ALONE
ALONE
HELLO....
'Darkest One...' ya know, I realize it's a fan fave, but to me it always came across as a paint-by-numbers Hip song: the kind of thing they'd done before, only better. The putative hook ('and yer the darkest on-on-un') seems especially wan and uninspired to me. 'Good Life,' on the other hand, is a towering ballad, memorable, yet unlike anything else they've done (maybe Gift Shop?). So I think it was a good choice for a single.
As for TO #4, the melody---like many of those on M@W---tires me out. It needs some serious tonic.
