[BulletRiddled]

great album, my personal fave from it is the completists but i like all of them. the best live song from m@w has to be lake fever, they just bring a whole new dimension and energy to it that lacks on the album version. the version from the london show last year was incredible.

That's my favorite song from that show.

Music@Work is my favorite Hip album, but it took a really long time to grow on me. There's a lot of really subtle touches that take a while to hear, mostly because the album is so loud, self-indulgent and over-the-top. The cover actually fits the album perfectly.

[j-monster]

I joined the many who threw the cd in because of this thread, and when I heard the guitar riff, I said "where the hell have I heard that wicked riff?" (since I only listen boots mostly and most of the awesome stuff is while they are jamming, as you all surely already know )

I figured it out. I thought maybe I heard it on the Pink Pop Festival 95 DVD during the Cookie Factory interlude of NOIS, threw it in and confirmed it.

M@W was released 5 years later or so.

I love this kinda stuff.

After reading that, I went to listen to the copy of NOIS I have from the Pink Pop show and Sharks back-to-back... and I don't know if it's exactly the same, but I definitely hear similarities.

That's surely one of the joys of following these guys... finding little gems like this, the genesis of future songs in the midst of great live performances. Brilliant! :thumb:

[joshwayy]

Good call....I definitely hear the same chord structure. A whole new appreciation for that NOIS version...my all time favorite!

[Stephen Dame]

great album, my personal fave from it is the completists but i like all of them. the best live song from m@w has to be lake fever, they just bring a whole new dimension and energy to it that lacks on the album version. the version from the london show last year was incredible.

Agreed. It also highlights how important Paul is to the band. On most stuff, he's the man behind the curtain, but when they play Lake Fever live, you get to see just how valuable Paul is to the whole operation.

[beanmedic]

Paul's the man.

[Killer Whale Tank]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: M@W is an album of outstanding musicisanship. That's why fans of Progressive Rock tend to dig it. The only problem on that CD is the near-total absence of good songwriting. Oh, well.

[beanmedic]

cratch: cratch:

[Lizard King]

I've said it before and I'll say it again: M@W is an album of outstanding musicisanship. That's why fans of Progressive Rock tend to dig it. The only problem on that CD is the near-total absence of good songwriting. Oh, well.

WTF? cratch: cratch:

near-total absence of good songwriting? Do you even like the Hip anymore?

[Chris Tanz]

isn't it the album where Gord apparently wrote the lyrics by writing song fragments on post-it notes and then pulling them together randomly to create songs. I remember reading something about that. might explain The Bastard.

purple italian,
ct

[Killer Whale Tank]

Uh...sure, I love the Hip. Just not that particular record.

Chris Tanz underscores my point. Too many of those songs come across as in-studio concoctions...the lack of compelling melodies, in particular, is a problem, but the lyrics can be pretty unfocused too. As you'd expect, given the method of composition (and it's revealing to me that Downie has since abandoned that approach).

Anyway, M@W has been beat up enough. I just think the musicianship versus songwriting angle is a good way of solving the puzzle of why some people love it, while a good number of others rate it as the worst Hip CD.

[Astronaut]

The cover of "music at work" reminds of a Bad Religion materpiece from 1989.

HIP:




BAD RELIGION:

[direwolf74]

Wow, good call on the Bad Religion album cover comparison!

[Astronaut]

Wow, good call on the Bad Religion album cover comparison!

I've been a BR fan for ages and when M@W came out, before I knew what the album looked like, I thought every record store kept stocking Bad Religion CDs in with the Tragically Hip by mistake.

[o78]

Good eye...I've loved Bad Religion for years and I never made the comparison before. Although I highly doubt the band has ever seen the No Control album. I can't see BR being in their cd collection

[Astronaut]

Good eye...I've loved Bad Religion for years and I never made the comparison before. Although I highly doubt the band has ever seen the No Control album. I can't see BR being in their cd collection

Hey you never know. For a "rock" band like the Hip they are quite diverse. So who knows, one of the boys may be a punker at heart.

:wink: