[Escape@Hand]

'Shadow' records...we can only dream about a Hip equivalent of Dylan's 'Bootleg Series' releases. Who knows, maybe it'll come to pass eventually...

It makes me nervous when artists say that given song or album is 'too personal' for public release. Sometimes that means they're withholding their most heartfelt work in favour of maintaining a persona that they feel is expected. Buck 65 once almost left a song about his mother's death off an album for just that reason. After it became a key track in his career, one that won him many new fans, he took his earlier doubts as proof that he'd had his artistic priorities backwards. Hopefully the Hip are not making a similar mistake.

Now then, as for MMP, my two cents. For those who are unenthused about the album, I suspect the root cause is simple: the rampant and extreme use of reverb on Gord's vocals throughout the record. There's nothing wrong at all with these songs, many of which are classic, catchy Hip - the hooks are there, actually - but never has there been a Hip album whose potential hit songs have been so subverted by production (and yes, I'll include Bob Rock's abominations in that statement). 'In Sarnia' is the biggest casualty - a great little Can-pop gem, but the vocals, harsh in the chorus to begin with, are distorted in a way that makes them even harsher, almost so as to resemble one of those 1980s productions that everyone now winces at. It's like they're just throwing away an automatic Hip Anthem. Extreme Reverb would be my alternate title for this album. I don't understand why this was felt to be necessary, except in specific cases ('Man,' for instance, is an art-rock opener well suited to that treatment, and in 'Ocean' the distortion seems to be part of the point, a bit like U2's 'Zoo Station'). It's too bad that the songs have to fight through all the distortion in order to be appreciated for what they are.

But I'll reiterate that AS SONGS these are mostly excellent. 'Possessed,' 'What Blue,' 'In Sarnia,' 'Here in the Dark' (a lost Pursuit of Happiness number!) and 'Machine' would be strong cuts on ANY Hip album. 'Tired' makes a lot more sense on the record than as a single (which I suspected would be the case). I have to give 'Great Soul,' 'Hot Mic' and 'Ocean Next' more listens; they seem awfully prog-rock to me, on initial acquaintance, almost like Rush songs in some aspects. Some will like that, but I mostly hate prog-rock...

If you're like me and think that a lot of these songs are perversely produced, you probably want to hear them live. This might also be the Hip album that will benefit the most from being taken on the road, away from all the reverb - unless they try to be 'faithful' to those effects on stage.

(Final thought, for now: there's a certain poetry in Johnny Fay, who was something of a handicap on record early on, being foregrounded on what stands to be the final Hip album. One thing's for sure, this is without question the Hip record most likely to be sampled in a future hip hop song!!)

You know I just finished listening to it again, and came back to post about the horrible use of reverb on Gord's vocals. I really dislike the whole production of this album, from the reverb to the rampant use of drum editing/triggering. There are a couple of cool vibes, to be sure (Machine stands out in that regard), but I really dislike the overall production of the album. If we are fortunate to have anything else released by the Hip (and I'm not betting on that), I really hope they don't go back to these producers.

I will say I am interested to hear how these songs come across live; I suspect they will be very different.