[clarke]

IVL is one of my favourite hip albums. I was 19 when it was released, in the last month of finishing high school. I remember meeting all my hip friends at 8am before first period and piling into my car to hear the first single (IAGLIYDW) played on the radio. It wasn't what I was expecting but had an eeriness to it and was so different than everything that had come before or that was on the radio at the time. When the album came out I loved it. It was the soundtrack for that last teenage (and really) childhood summer of playing baseball, afternoons at the beach, parties, and road trips to see the hip - the last time I had little to no responsibilities.

RE: Silver Jet - have always loved the song but feel it loses some steam in the last verse and always thought it is one of the rare hip songs that doesn't translate to the live show.

[potsie]

Thinking back, I'm reminded of how much 9/11 hung over everything around this time. No exception here. "Leave" has obvious allusions to 9/11 but I also seem to recall Gord taking about 9/11 influencing more on this album - the love theme of "Are you ready?", elements of "Good Life", etc. I seem to recall Gord talking about this at the time. Am I remembering this correctly -- or I am just inferring this based on my own interpretations.

I think 9/11 is touched upon on IVL but those events, and the subsequent war, appear to be more broadly addressed on In Between Evolution. The timeline of the IVL release of June 2002 would suggest that the band was recording in the fall of 2001, thus there would have been time for those events to infiltrate Gord's song writing. I've never thought of "Are You Ready" as alluding to 9/11, although the question of "are you ready to love?" does seem to imply a broader, more global sense of "love", as opposed to a romanticized love between two individuals. So it does work in the "Let's all learn to love each other instead of killing each other" philosophical stance to the insanity of war. In that way it is a cousin to the follow-up question of "Are We Family?" on IBE.

WRT to "Good Life", I've wondered about the "And all the smoke for one life Gives way to shaky movements" being a 9/11 reference. However, the most obvious song on IVL to be influenced by the times is "The Dark Canuck". The verse of "If we ever get home, and the subject comes up, this War isn't for children, War is nothing's enough" is a direct reference. The word "War"is capitalized suggesting the current military initiative and not referencing war in a generic sense.

[Moof_Milker]

You make some good points, Postie. I think it can be both -- ILV touches on the event of 9/11 itself...and IBE addresses the war that followed. At least in parts.
Another event that IVL addresses is from Throwing Off Glass, a song Gord wrote about the Mennonite woman who was hit in the face by a beer bottle thrown by a passing car. Couldn't find much about the incident, but I think this is it: https://www.upi.com/Archives/1997/07/23/...869630400/.

[mark]

i've hated this album since the day it was released and thus, haven't listened to it in years. that said, i reserve the "worst album ever" for WATS. i 'll give it another listen tomorrow when i am walking the dog and see if it really is as bad as i remember it.

ok, so I have listened to it 7 or 8 times over the last couple of weeks. I will officially retract my previous statements. it isn't anywhere near as bad as I remember it. There are definitely some shitty songs, but not as many as I originally thought.

I will stand by m statement that WATS is their worst ever, though. no one will ever be able to change my mind on that. it is absolute garbage. but that is for another thread

[edgoffin]

ok, so I have listened to it 7 or 8 times over the last couple of weeks. I will officially retract my previous statements. it isn't anywhere near as bad as I remember it. There are definitely some shitty songs, but not as many as I originally thought.

I will stand by m statement that WATS is their worst ever, though. no one will ever be able to change my mind on that. it is absolute garbage. but that is for another thread

I had a similar experience when I bought the vinyl and for the first time in a long time listened to it a few times end-to-end. I never thought it was terrible, but aside from Silver Jet, Dire Wolf, Dark Canuck (and maybe Good Life, though I find it a bit repetitive) was generally unmemorable. Possible I was still fatigued by M@W at the time, but it was got better over the years. WATS....I think we'll be writing the same comments....

[andrew sharpe]

It's a good album, even if I always rank it in the lower half. Not Bobby's finest album, hard for me to even distinguish his playing on most of the songs, almost like someone told him to just play riffs or something. Has some great GD lyrics...I find Throwing Off Glass especially touching. "I know I'm losing you and I know what that means."

I think I remember someone saying "All Tore Up" was about a night on the Coke Machine Glow tour where Julie and the band convinced GD to come out drinking after a show.

[SRK]

There's not much about this album I go back to, but the trio of good life, silver jet and problem bear are what makes it worthwhile for me. The rest are just sort of there.

[senrab]

When this album came out, it was the summer of 2002 and my father was dying of the same brain cancer as Gord.

Fast forward to 2016, and I am at the 2nd Toronto show. What album set do they play? IVL.

edit: and I still have The Hip Club card that came with the CD