[Chris Tanz]

The Rules-Emperor Penguin run is my favourite end to an album. The Rules and Chagrin are two of my favourites and gems of the catalog.

This was such a great post and I was really feeling your love for Phantom Power, and then I read this and I thought, oh man, how disappointed is he going to be when The Rules and Chagrin Falls drop 1-2 in the PP poll.

Maybe Save The Planet will intercede and take one for the team.

I truly enjoyed your post however!

ct

[clarke]

The Rules-Emperor Penguin run is my favourite end to an album. The Rules and Chagrin are two of my favourites and gems of the catalog.

This was such a great post and I was really feeling your love for Phantom Power, and then I read this and I thought, oh man, how disappointed is he going to be when The Rules and Chagrin Falls drop 1-2 in the PP poll.

Maybe Save The Planet will intercede and take one for the team.

I truly enjoyed your post however!

ct

I accepted a long time ago that most of my favourite songs seem to be most people's least favourite ones. IVL, IBE, and WC will all be interesting to see.

[potsie]

There is no "Phantom Power" sound. There is no cohesive feel, mood, or atmosphere to the album. And for me, that is what holds it back from challenging DFN as their greatest work.

Can't say I agree with this, as I feel the album does indeed have it's own sound. To me it's always had a real earthy/summer-ish feel to it, and many of the lyrics seem to be full of nostalgia, wistfulness, and reflection. Not sure I can explain it any other way, but for me there's a definite cohesiveness to the general atmosphere of these songs that instantly transport me back to a specific time and place in my life. Not many other Hip albums give me the same warm & fuzzy feeling that this one does, which makes it distinctive amongst their catalogue...at least to me. And that's why it remains one of my favorite Hip records.

I don't feel much of a summer vibe with Phantom Power due to the many winter references on it (which Clarke has pointed out). However, in thinking about your point of view, I wonder if the time of release (July) and the fact that it holds such specific and visceral memories of that time for you has impacted your view of it as a "summer" album? Also to this point, I don't think one can underestimate how the cover art can impact the perception of the album contents. The colour scheme for PP is a bright, sunny, summer yellow. This could lend a lighter feel to the material. Just speculating...

To me, DFN feels like a third week of January/dead of winter album. PP is not quite as "wintery" and feels more like a late March/early April album.

As for the themes you mention, I think those describe TATH just as well (nostalgia: ABAC, etc; wistfulness: Sherpa, etc; reflection: Put if Off, etc), although I'd agree that they are probably more pervasive on PP.

In regards to the sound, I still feel like the songs on PP don't "belong" to the album. This is a harder point for me to articulate and I've done a poor job of doing it (which may be evidence of me not really having a point here!). If I think about other 90's albums... Little Bones, Three Pistols, Cordelia have a RA "sound". Grace, Too has a DFN sound. I can't imagine Grace on any other album than DFN. When it comes to PP I can imagine almost all those songs on other albums. I think Poets would have fit on TATH. Membership would have worked on DFN. BobC would have fit on FC. The Rules would have worked on M@W. I just don't instantly identify PP songs as having a unique sound, like I do songs on most other Hip albums.

[direwolf74]

There is no "Phantom Power" sound. There is no cohesive feel, mood, or atmosphere to the album. And for me, that is what holds it back from challenging DFN as their greatest work.

Can't say I agree with this, as I feel the album does indeed have it's own sound. To me it's always had a real earthy/summer-ish feel to it, and many of the lyrics seem to be full of nostalgia, wistfulness, and reflection. Not sure I can explain it any other way, but for me there's a definite cohesiveness to the general atmosphere of these songs that instantly transport me back to a specific time and place in my life. Not many other Hip albums give me the same warm & fuzzy feeling that this one does, which makes it distinctive amongst their catalogue...at least to me. And that's why it remains one of my favorite Hip records.

I don't feel much of a summer vibe with Phantom Power due to the many winter references on it (which Clarke has pointed out). However, in thinking about your point of view, I wonder if the time of release (July) and the fact that it holds such specific and visceral memories of that time for you has impacted your view of it as a "summer" album? Also to this point, I don't think one can underestimate how the cover art can impact the perception of the album contents. The colour scheme for PP is a bright, sunny, summer yellow. This could lend a lighter feel to the material. Just speculating...

Some good points here. I would agree that the timing of the release certainly plays into my feelings about the album. It was released in July, and I remember playing the shit out of it all summer long, and well into the fall as well. Also, songs like Save the Planet, Membership, and Bobcaygeon were played frequently on the ARA summer tour in '97, and everytime I hear those songs they automatically conjure up images and memories of summer and outdoor festivals.

And I suppose the bright/yellow colour scheme of the cover art probably affects my view of the album on a subconscious level as well.

[kieffer]

I mentioned the same thing in my earlier post about PP feeling like a summer album so I certainly agree with that sentiment

[Moof_Milker]

For lyrical reasons pointed out by Clark, I'm firmly in the feels-like-end-of-winter camp. Definitely the ice storm of '98 lingers over this one too -- in its lyrics (Something On) and when some of it was recorded. In the radio premier, I love Gord S's joke about the band having to steal a generator from the local hospital in order to power up the studio so they could record the album. :lol:

The "It's the end of rent-a-movie weather" line always pops into my head in early spring -- although funny to think the concept of renting movies now dates this song. Maybe if it was written today the line would be, "It's the end of binge-watching weather..."

The other weather related verse I love from Membership is:
"By the time the ice-huts hit the bottom
We were already home in bed
The most worthy men and the fiercest architects
Couldn't fight the current they couldn't save,
They couldn't save the sheds"

I grew up in ice-fishing country and there would always be ice hut drama, especially as winter wore on and the weather got warmer. This verse conjures up images in my mind of the fishermen and locals figuring out how to rescue those ice huts that occasionally broke through the ice. Now I don't know what Gord was thinking when he wrote this, but I see the "worthy men and the fiercest architects" as a tongue-and-cheek yet reverent nod to these guys -- working class men dressed in their plaid jackets, wearing toques, smoking darts working to haul out a sunken ice fishing hut. For me this is an example of why Gord's lyrics resonate so deeply with Canadians. Of course, a major part is the overt references to Canada (hockey, specific places, etc.) but I think it goes so much deeper than that. It's an awareness of the geography that defines Canada and its people. The seasons, the landscape. Gord evokes images of these things and the emotions they generate. I hear him speak to these things with reverence. They're important. They define us. And it's all open to interpretation, of course, which makes it great poetry. Again who the hell knows what he was thinking when he wrote this, but for me it paints a picture of something I specific I identify with - something perhaps uniquely Canadian. A lot of Gord's lyrics do that.

[potsie]

I grew up in ice-fishing country and there would always be ice hut drama, especially as winter wore on and the weather got warmer. This verse conjures up images in my mind of the fishermen and locals figuring out how to rescue those ice huts that occasionally broke through the ice. Now I don't know what Gord was thinking when he wrote this, but I see the "worthy men and the fiercest architects" as a tongue-and-cheek yet reverent nod to these guys -- working class men dressed in their plaid jackets, wearing toques, smoking darts working to haul out a sunken ice fishing hut. For me this is an example of why Gord's lyrics resonate so deeply with Canadians. Of course, a major part is the overt references to Canada (hockey, specific places, etc.) but I think it goes so much deeper than that. It's an awareness of the geography that defines Canada and its people. The seasons, the landscape. Gord evokes images of these things and the emotions they generate. I hear him speak to these things with reverence. They're important. They define us. And it's all open to interpretation, of course, which makes it great poetry. Again who the hell knows what he was thinking when he wrote this, but for me it paints a picture of something I specific I identify with - something perhaps uniquely Canadian. A lot of Gord's lyrics do that.

*clapping*... that is just beautiful. Well written, Moof_Milker!

[Scotty12]

Late to the party in here, but there have been some fantastic posts in these threads and I fully enjoy reading them. Thought I'd contribute Gord's "double features" in this album: superfarmers and chambermaids

Lava flowing in Superfarmer's direction
He's been getting reprieve from the heat in the frozen-food section (Poets)

Superfarmer's bent on the cover of Time
The Moralists scream, "he's all mine!" (The Rules)

Past hills of chambermaids' dark bare arms
And fields of muscles quilted to the bone (Vapour trails)

The pigeons sagged the wire with their weight
Listening to the singing chambermaid
She sang "They Checked Out an Hour Ago" (Escape Is at hand for the travellin man)


With an honourable mention to "incredible/edible"

And it sounds heroincredible
Sound that makes the headphones edible
Awake affiliated and indelible (save the planet)

But your crust is just incredible
The radio was edible (Emperor penguin)

Despite the album lacking the cohesiveness of Day for night, song for song I think the lyrics througout Phantom Power may be Gord reaching his peak.

Here's some insight about the coverart :

20171204_180044.jpg Size: 1.75 MB  Downloads: 151

[daylight]

Phantom Power turned 20 yesterday! I believe it was the first Hip album I got on release day. I was doing grass cutting as a summer job at the time and I remember driving to the music store over lunch to pick up the CD and having a terrible first couple listens on my discman while driving a very noisy lawnmower. Can't believe that was 20 years ago!

[Escape@Hand]

Phantom Power turned 20 yesterday! I believe it was the first Hip album I got on release day. I was doing grass cutting as a summer job at the time and I remember driving to the music store over lunch to pick up the CD and having a terrible first couple listens on my discman while driving a very noisy lawnmower. Can't believe that was 20 years ago!

Crazy...I was working at a summer camp and I remember booking that day off just so I could go into Kingston to buy it! Escape is at Hand grabbed me right away, and never let go! Still one of my all time favourite Hip songs.

[direwolf74]

20 years! Holy crap, where does the time go?

[FighterAndLover]

after finally turning back to the Hip (because it was too painful before) I think this is their most complete album. It has everything from album rockers to lady-wooing ballads. Not a regrettable song on it (except for Membership? haha don't hate me). Vapor Trails is the most underrated Hip song of all time.

[nestene1]

20 years? ‘How'd it get this late so early?’

Loved this album from play 1, and I still do. It was in the early days of me having email so I sent a message to the address on the CD booklet, basically saying ‘U.K.-based fan, great album, thank you’, you know. Never expected a reply, let alone one that said, “We thought you’d like this one. Das Hips”. No idea who wrote it and I don’t rightly care - 20 years on I’ve not forgotten.