[potsie]

Drop Off is a fabulous composition, but it shoots itself in the foot with the bizarre vocal. The sad truth is, I don't listen to that song any more, just because I find the vocal so intrusive; of all Hip songs, this is the one that suffers the most from bad vocal decisions. So I voted against it. However, I'm not surprised to see 'Kids' losing this one, although I AM pleasantly surprised to see that it held in there for this long.

The funny thing about 'Family Band' is that yes, it's a good song. But is it really so great that it should be the champion cut on a Hip record? It seems, rather, to be one of a handful of incontestably strong cuts on an otherwise misbegotten album, and of those strong cuts, it has the fewest 'triggers:' i.e., no extreme vocal or battering chords like 'Kids,' no vocal self-sabotage like 'Drop Off,' no controversial middle eight like 'Rink,' no grotesque plodding keyboards like the dreary 'Ocean' or the featherweight 'In View.' Certainly I have trouble thinking of 'Family Band' as one of a rarified clutch of true Hip classics - yet I could see people giving 'classic' status to 'Drop Off' or 'Rink,' for instance (even if I personally wouldn't). In other words, I see FB as winning the WC competition less because of its intrinsic fabulousness and more because of perceived flaws in the other songs. Just a thought.

An interesting perspective. Let's say Yer Favs came out in 2007, instead of 2005, allowing for potential entrants from World Container. Is Family Band worthy of a place on that collection, alongside Three Pistols, Locked, Grace, ABAC, etc (picking some of the previous poll winners)? Maybe... but to me it's not a hands-down, no-f**king-doubt-about decision like it should be for the "best" song from a Hip album. Is Family Band simply a big fish in the small (shallow?) pond of World Container?

Regardless, I love it, and all the final four for this poll. The hard manner in which Gord comes down on the biting "Smokin'" (the first time) feels right in all the ways that the hard come down on "thing" in the chorus of "Beautiful Thing" feels wrong. And how about Paul on this song? He's the star member of Family Band. My one small complaint would be the manner in which the song opens. Paul's rhythm guitar feels hollow (I think it's isolated to one channel) whereas at the 2:30 mark of the song, right after the pause, Paul gets a 15 second rhythm spotlight where his guitar is foregrounded and it sounds awesome. I wish the song had opened the same way.