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On to Fully Completely
Released October 6, 1992 in Canada and the January 1993 in the US. Recorded in the UK, produced by Chris Tsangarides.
"Courage (for Hugh MacLennan)
"Looking for a Place to Happen"
"At the Hundredth Meridian"
"Pigeon Camera"
"Lionized"
"Locked in the Trunk of a Car"
"We'll Go, Too"
"Fully Completely"
"Fifty Mission Cap"
"Wheat Kings"
"The Wherewithal"
"Eldorado"
This was maybe the first Hip album that I was anticipating the release day. If I recall, Locked was an advanced single. What I don't remember is my initial impression of the album, but I do recall being really blown away at how live shows really went to the next level. One of my main memories of this album is they remote broadcast/live to tape from a bar in Australia (?) for the Junos.
I'll have to go back to listen to the album end to end. Of all the producers they worked with, Tsangarides has always stood out for me as an odd choice. Primarily known as a metal guy -- nothing wrong with his work on the album. There's definitely more production on that album; first few notes of Courage is strikingly different than anything else they had done in the studio to date. Meridian has some more "bite to it" (especially background vocals and that rhythm riff), likely thanks to the producer. Gord's vocal delivery really take another leap forward -- listen to say Pigeon and go back to anything on UTH.
I will say I have had a love/hate relationship with Courage. Was a song that for a long period I wish they'd dropped from set lists for another choice. Maybe it was Gord's yelling for a period, or just seeing it many times....seeing it in Kingston, realizing it was the last time, was a really depressing feeling.
I do wish Looking had a longer shelf life for set lists. The "play a whole album tour" is always something I find strange, but I ended up seeing three FC shows after planning on only one. It was great to hear all these songs again, Gord sounded really good, the presentation was maybe the best they ever did in terms of video and lighting. One of my lasting Hip memories will be Gord pointing out places on the backdrop map while signing Pigeon Camera.
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I was in high school and listening mostly to rap until Courage came on the radio. I was immediately hooked. The Hip became my favourite band and I never looked back. Every album after FC was a release day purchase. The FC tour from a couple years ago reminded me how truly great this album is, and what a generational signpost it is for Canadians.
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By the time Fully Completely was announced, I was a full on Hip fan. I remember going to the record store the day it came out, both to pick up it and Neil Young's Harvest Moon, which was released the same day (was a great day for Canadian music!). Harvest Moon was on the shelf, but they had not unboxed Fully Completely yet, so I had to go back about an hour later to pick it up.
Was a fall day and I threw the CD on while I was doing some work around the apartment (putting that damn hair dryer shrink plastic on the windows, LOL). I let it play through and to be honest..............I didn't "get it". It seemed like such a departure from UTH and RA and really did not grab me at all. Oh well, still more work to do, I'll let it play through again.....again.......again......holy crap this is actually pretty darn good, not what I was expecting, but good.
By that night, I was just in love with the CD, I realized the change I noticed was from a few guys from Kingston going from a rocking bar band, to a full fledged Canadian act that could be put on par with some of the best stuff to have ever come out of Canada. The growth from the EP through to RA was pretty linear, the growth between RA and FC was exponential, it brought them to the iconic Canadian status level.
Yes, production was a little overdone, some of the mixing could have been better (as seen in the re-mixed reissue), but this is the album that made the tragically hip "The Hip". It is an iconic album in their career and an overall iconic Canadian album, period.
This album was the nail in the coffin for me as the Hip becoming my favourite band out there.
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Re-mixed reissue? wow When did that come out? The deluxe version? I definitely need to re-listen to this album.
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britstones Wrote:Re-mixed reissue? wow When did that come out? The deluxe version? I definitely need to re-listen to this album.
Yes, the reissue was the two disk album or the boxset. Remastered by Bob Ludwig.
"We're forced to bed, but we're free to dream"
Dana
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Wow, the Hip's 'Ur' album! It will be interesting to see the results of this.
When FC came out, I'll be honest - my initial response was one of disappointment. The production seemed to have sanded off all the band's glorious, frenetic rough edges, and Gord seemed to be singing as though he was trying not to wake the neighbours. Where were the foregrounded guitars, where was the leather-lunged intensity of RA? Only "Trunk" and the final verse of "Meridian" seemed to capture that excitement.
To this day I'm not crazy about the production - and neither are the Hip, as evidenced by the remix for 'Hipeponymous.' Even more than most Hip albums, this one would live its most fully realized life on stage. But I quickly overcame my initial reticence and began to appreciate the great strengths of these songs. Musically, tracks like 'Meridian,' the exquisite 'Pigeon Camera' and' 'El Dorado' push the band forward, and this is the album that gives us Gord Downie as a fully mature lyricist, connecting fractured imagery to tell elusive (and allusive) stories, his enduring concerns with predation, disaster and Canadiana all on glorious parade. It's also Gord's mature singing style, too, less reliant on vocal 'special effects' and more willing to just let the song stand or fall without hysteria on his part. FC sets the template for the rest of the Hip's career in many ways.
Despite its legendary reputation, it's not perfect: 'Lionized' and 'We'll Go To' are boring filler that the world can live happily without. And on another note, I'm gonna be sacrilegious here and say that, while 'Courage' is a good song, I never quite heard what makes it such a GREAT song. That's one that has always puzzled me for the outsized love it receives. But this album probably includes more enduring Hip classics than any other. And "Wheat Kings" may not be their best song, but it's one of their most *important.*
A great record, then, their most iconic by far. Great packaging too and I always loved Gord's liner note. :thumb:
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Their "breakthrough" album so to speak, and the one that made them Canadian icons. I completely agree with KWT on the production, which is the main reason why it never seems to rank among my top 5 Hip albums. The songs themselves are brilliant, but the overall sound of the album is way too polished. I can't remember who came up with this, but years ago somebody described Johnny's drums on this album as sounding like "a plastic spoon hitting mashed potatoes" (I think that came from a review at the time). And the guitars just sound kinda wimpy to me. I also agree that Gord sounds a little too restrained with his singing. Not sure if this was a personal choice, or if it was Tsangarides telling him to tone it down. But I always felt it lacked the energy from previous albums. Also the band members themselves have described the recording process for this album as somewhat uninspiring, and that the studio they were in was too sterile. The 2014 remastered version definitely has more life to it, and the tracks that were remixed by Don Smith for Yer Favourites give a brief glimpse at how the album could have sounded with a better producer. Like some of you have already mentioned, the live setting is where this album truly comes alive.
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Agree with the comments thus far. In the thread for Road Apples, I said I kinda saw the musical and creative step forward from their previous album (Up To Here) somewhat akin to The Beatles evolution from Rubber Soul to Revolver. Now, The Beatles followed Revolver with their most commercially popular album Sgt. Peppers, and The Hip followed RAs with their most commercially successfully album, FC. Again, not directly comparing the two bands, but I do see a parallel here too. As I mentioned, the commercial popularity, but also the approach to production. Sgt. Pepper is a very glossy, highly produced album. FC is also glossy and highly produced. I think the production is a crucial element that makes these songs so popular with the mainstream - it's a very slick sounding record, but as I feel with Sgt. Pepper, it's a little over-cooked at times. A little too glossy. Some of my all-time favourite Hip songs are on this album, but it's also one of my least favourite sounding Hip albums. Not as rock n rollin' jangly as the previous albums, and not as moody and atmospheric as what comes next in Day For Night and beyond. Regardless, it's a classic. Anyone who says otherwise must be chronologically fucked up. Sorry, chronologically 'sick and ashamed and happy.'
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Great insights from everyone above. I echo many of your sentiments and thoughts.
FC was my first Hip 'release day' purchase. Once I got it home the CD was rarely returned to its jewel case for a period of about 10 months over 1992-93. It happily resided in either the crappy three disc changer in my bedroom or followed me around in my discman. I fell hard for this album and loved it all upon first listen. Only in later years was I able to turn a more critical eye on it.
What is unique about FC among all Hip albums is the lofty place it occupied in pop culture in the months following its release. UTH and RA lit the fuse but it was FC that sent the Hip into the stratosphere. This album dominated radio, MuchMusic, car stereos and high school and university parties. It achieved a universality the likes of which had never been seen for a Canadian band and which will almost certainly never be seen again due to the end of monoculture.
It is common among arbiters of music taste to hold on to fandom of a lesser known band and hope said band never “makes it”. In effect, these individuals define themselves by their favourite band’s level of obscurity. In 1993, listening to the Hip didn’t make you cool, or unique, because of the ubiquitous nature of the tunes. However, it was an amazing time to like something that everyone else liked, without any sense of loss of identity. No need to ask friends or classmates if they liked the Hip, it was just assumed. FC would go on at parties and no one would dare make a move to take it off. In fact when El Dorado was finished it was time to crack another beer and push play again for Courage.
I spent a ton of time calling into CFBC radio in Saint John to vote for “Locked” for the “Hot 9 at 9:00”. I made it my singular mission to get that song to the top of the local radio countdown. I also spent a lot of time studying the lyrics, the liner notes and the amazing album art, arguably the Hip’s best. I don’t typically list FC as my favourite Hip album, in large part due to the poor production, but it’s damn close to the top and holds a special place in my heart due to the time it harkens back to.
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I too remember having discussions that put the Hip within the context of other dominant acts of the era. The Holy Trinity for me and my buddies was Nirvana, U2, and the Hip. This would have bewildered people from other countries, but to us it was just self-evident.
The Hip were analogous to Nirvana in the specific sense of connecting with tremendous intensity to 'Generation X,' a forlorn and hitherto ignored demographic in the popular culture. Where Nirvana was all about that alienation, the Hip offered a more ambiguous (yet exciting) formula; but most of all they articulated a specfically *Canadian* version of the Gen X moment. I remember the incredible exhilaration that HERE was an act that expressed the Canada I recognized, not the bland identity-less generic stuff of Bryan Adams or other supposedly 'Can-Con' artists, nor the tired rural, folkish 1970s vision peddled by the CanCon elite in the CBC and elsewhere. ( It wasn't until around M@W that the CBC finally twigged to the Hip's significance, which shows what an ossified joke 'official' Canadian culture had become. :roll: )
As others have noted, the fractured media landscape now grinds against that sort of unifying 'generational moment,' but I also think attitudes to music itself have shifted. Music has become more an accoutrement to a celebrity 'brand' than an end in itself - it's the celebrity brand that people now connect with primarily. I also think that the role music used to play for young people - an expression of, and a finding of, identity - has been supplanted to some degree by social media technology. Otherwise put, the excited way in which we used to talk about bands is now the way in which the young talk about memes, feeds, and technological platforms.The profound connection between popular music and youthful idenitity that existed through the rock and roll era has been substantially (though not entirely) eroded.
