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The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Printable Version

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Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Chris Tanz - 12-06-2017

Put me in league with the Freak Turbulence lovers. I didn't know there was such a swell of hatred for that song.

Voted for WMH, after almost picking Train Overnight. WMH stinks. It's a dumb clunker of a song. It's a little bit worse than Train Overnight. Probably my worst back-to-back songs in all of Hipendom. I'm never quite sure I understand the "this album would be better if there were fewer songs" folks (why would I want less music, even if the additional music isn't A+), but I can almost see it here. Toronto #4 is perfection and The Bear is an oeuvre, but to get there we gotta stepover the hog carcasses that are WMH and Train Overnight.

Evacuating long after it made no sense,
ct

PS. Looks like the Bastard's gonna go in the first round. That's a shame. Unwieldy goon of a song, but I love them purple Italians and the pools in the mountains. All that swizzlestick of images, like a flabby, overripe As Makeshift as We Are. I should have voted strategically for Train Overnight to target my discontent and let others take out WMH. I should have narrowed my hate, not hated huge, hated sprawling, hated wild. Unfocussed hate hates itself. Pick your victims. Specialize.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - direwolf74 - 12-06-2017

Chris Tanz Wrote:I should have voted strategically for Train Overnight to target my discontent and let others take out WMH. I should have narrowed my hate, not hated huge, hated sprawling, hated wild. Unfocussed hate hates itself. Pick your victims. Specialize.


:thumb:

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Chris Tanz - 12-06-2017

Fuckin' Pines is gonna go in the first round??? WTF??!?!??!??

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Escape@Hand - 12-06-2017

Voted The Bear, I skip that every time. WMH would be my second pick. Not sure why the hatred for Pines, it's a pretty song, and while not the best song on the album, far better than some others.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Chris Tanz - 12-06-2017

Escape@Hand Wrote:Voted The Bear, I skip that every time. WMH would be my second pick. Not sure why the hatred for Pines, it's a pretty song, and while not the best song on the album, far better than some others.

People voting for Pines are not thinking so much as abandoning thought.

ct

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Tomacco - 12-06-2017

I know Pines is a tiny song, but I find it haunting and beautiful personally.
The Bastard is okay too. To be honest, I don’t even remember how Wild Mountain Honey goes. That’s pretty telling considering I’m a huge Hip fan. So, that gets my vote for sure.
Overall though, M@W is probably my least favorite album overall (or Now for Plan A). I like Music at Work, Puttin Down, Toronto 4, Completists and Pines, and love Lake Fever. The rest I could take or leave.
Oh, and also, the cover art makes my eyes bleed.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - direwolf74 - 12-06-2017

Who are all these sick bastards voting for Pines?

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Killer Whale Tank - 12-06-2017

Gee, I think Pines is an excellent song: I'd rank it above 'Toronto #4,' in fact, since it's not built around the singularly unappealing compliment of 'rock plug.'

Chris Tanz, that was a hell of a post :thumb:

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Chris Tanz - 12-06-2017

^^ Thanks! Was it the "hog carcasses" or me plagiarizing Gord from We Are The Next Us? Cause I can only take credit for one of those.

ct

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - robbroncs - 12-07-2017

there is a lot of options here. the first hip record that didn't 'wow' me. and hasn't aged well since.

lake fever is a shoe in.

went with pines

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - andrew sharpe - 12-07-2017

MAW was GD's first attempt at his beat poetry rhythm...further evolved on Coke Machine Glow. I've always wrestled with Gord's arty side, and never quite decided if it was his restlessness or just an evolution that left me behind. Sometimes it works for me, other times I wish he'd just stay in metre. More and more lately I'm just happy to hear his voice. Still, MAW is always on the bottom of my pile.

I voted Freak Turbulence...I don't dig that weird sound and the vocal feels out of rhythm.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - potsie - 12-07-2017

andrew sharpe Wrote:MAW was GD's first attempt at his beat poetry rhythm...further evolved on Coke Machine Glow. I've always wrestled with Gord's arty side, and never quite decided if it was his restlessness or just an evolution that left me behind. Sometimes it works for me, other times I wish he'd just stay in metre. More and more lately I'm just happy to hear his voice. Still, MAW is always on the bottom of my pile.

I voted Freak Turbulence...I don't dig that weird sound and the vocal feels out of rhythm.

Downie's self-perception seems to have changed around this time period, from a rock star that writes poetic lyrics to a poet that writes lyrics to rock songs. The former stance served him well from DFN through PP, the later resulted in some instances of bogged down lyrics on M@W which the band had difficulty matching musically. He righted the ship by the time he got to IBE.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - Killer Whale Tank - 12-07-2017

Some great observations in the last couple of posts.

I love CMG. But I agree that Gord D went through a rather 'precocious' phase where his interest in poetry and arty sophistication crowded out his earlier, more intuitive lyrical voice. This is the Gord who was citing his sources, feeding abstract concepts from John Cage into lyrics, worrying about making every line in a song the same length on the page, a Gord who seemed terribly impressed with abstract metaphors (which seemed smart), etc.; and of course a Gord who published a book of 'poetry.'

It was, I felt at the time, very much akin to what I used to run into sometimes when I was in grad school: a combination of precocity and insecurity typical of young-ish people who are in slightly over their heads and earnestly wishing to demonstrate that they belonged. Perhaps it was a symptom of Gord wanting to fit into the Toronto artistic community into which he had thrown himself - a community in which the Hip's achievement tended to be sneered at - and also, of course, just Gord's native intelligence colliding with a rich and exciting world of ideas and art.

And like potsie, I see this awkward phase as receding after IVL.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - loach - 12-07-2017

I too am surprised to see the votes piling up for Pines. Short song that leaves you wanting more but I like its imagery and it has a pleasant melody that I always enjoy when it appears when I'm randomly shuffling all the Hip songs on my laptop at work.

I voted Freak Turbulence. That song just grates me the wrong way, and I hate actual freak turbulence. Looking at this record, and upcoming ones, I'm realizing how much more I like Gord's writing about ships/lakes as compared to planes/flying. However, I will say that these lyrics have embedded themselves solidly into my brain, as they always comes to mind when I'm flying, especially when the captain gives the update of roughly how long it will be until we land.

Re: The Weakest Link - Music @ Work - Round 1 - loach - 12-07-2017

Did the band ever mention why Wild Mountain Honey was given that title? I don't see the connection in the lyrics and I don't really see much resemblance for it to be a homage to the Steve Miller song of the same name.