[gsmacleod]

Here we go with Round 2!

Eliminated in Round 1:
Another Midnight
Everytime You Go
Trickle Down

Again, choose the song you think is the weakest on the album from those remaining. After 48 hours, the three songs with the most votes will be eliminated and we'll do round three.

Happy voting!

Note - voting will end Thursday at 7:34 Eastern.

Shane

[ikky99]

People! Please be resonable here. She Didn't Know & Opiated are my 2 faves off UTH!!

[potsie]

People! Please be resonable here. She Didn't Know & Opiated are my 2 faves off UTH!!

Love 'em both as well. I think Opiated will be safe this round but She Didn't Know collected 5 votes in round 1 so you're going to need to pump some hands and kiss some babies while campaigning to get it through to round 3.

[Killer Whale Tank]

I'm shocked that "I'll Be Leaving You" survived the first round. Both "Everytime you Go" and "Trickle Down" seem quite obviously superior to a song whose lyric, melody, and feeble wordplay come nowhere close to the promise of its terrific riff and wonderful middle-eight. It amounts to a couple of good elements surrounded by a pretty crummy song. By contrast, those other two are solid, well-constructed songs through and through.

Anyway.

If "Opiated" gets eliminated in this round, I will be horrified hock: That's one of the very best cuts on the record.

Never quite got the fuss around "She Didn't Know," however. It seems to be a song that any number of bands could have come up with - the very definition of "nothing special." Maybe it worked better live, I dunno (never heard it). On the record, it's a "meh" for me.

[andrew sharpe]

I went She Didn't Know but I'm fairly confident 38 Years Old is next on my chopping block. A prison break should have made for a better story, and "stare at their shoes" is really the only lyric that does anything for me.

[mark]

i love I'll Believe in You. the line .. at 5:55 he comes walkin' in the front door smilin' ... is one of my faves

i voted for NOIS again. :lol:

[Killer Whale Tank]

"Walkin' in the front door smilin" is indeed a great line. Unfortunately, it's followed up by one of the great missed opportunities in hip lyrics; 'don't read too much into what I ain't denyin' really should have been

'don't read too much into the fact that I'm lyin'

which would have added a nice parallelism with the last line of the second verse, while also being both cleaner and funnier.

'38 Years Old' - well, I disagree with andrew sharpe. The song is perfect for what it is, right down to the ambiguous conclusion. (We assume that the Mounties get their man, but other scenarios are possible, including a doomed shootout or even a suicide). The opening verse sets the stage perfectly, and the singer's connection to the escapee and the story as a whole are slowly and believably unfolded. Then there's another quiet ambiguity in the 'never kissed a GIRL' refrain, which may or may not be hinting at the archetypical scenario of prison homosexuality. Beyond that, the song just sounds great, with that muscular folk sound that the Hip do so well (and too rarely for my liking). It's a Hip classic.

[andrew sharpe]

KWT you were bang on when you said GD's songwriting was still maturing at this point, but 38 is the prime example! Stack it up against their other acoustic ballads: Wheat Kings, Scared, ABAC. 38 can't tie their shoes. Nice riff (Bobby?), but overall the song is a weak link for me. No way is it better than Opiated. If his bride didn't like it, Saint Peter wouldn't mind.

[Killer Whale Tank]

Well, we agree on 'Opiated.' Now there is an example of a lyric that shows Gord fully realizing his promise. Not a weak line in it, just a set of killer couplets. The song as a whole also points the way forward, given its sense of menace - a distinctive Hip specialty, at least until TATHH - and a set of dynamics that differs from the more straight-ahead aspect of the rest of the album. Just a great track.

[carebread]

I miss you, Another Midnight.

What the hell is WTWCD doing with so many votes? It's a top 10, maybe top 5 for me overall!

[chancellor]

I miss you, Another Midnight.

What the hell is WTWCD doing with so many votes? It's a top 10, maybe top 5 for me overall!

I totally agree with WTWCD, it was the song that got me into the Hip. Definitely, a top 10 song for me, some days 5.

[andrew sharpe]

Road Apples is gonna be a bitch.

[cochise]

I miss you, Another Midnight.

What the hell is WTWCD doing with so many votes? It's a top 10, maybe top 5 for me overall!

I totally agree with WTWCD, it was the song that got me into the Hip. Definitely, a top 10 song for me, some days 5.

x3

When it breaks into "and a girl walks by the burning bush, she asks what's gone wrong here man, and he smiles and says open wide, wide, wiiiiiiiiiiiide". That line right there and the way Gord delivers it, just brings this song to a whole other level.

[potsie]

KWT you were bang on when you said GD's songwriting was still maturing at this point, but 38 is the prime example! Stack it up against their other acoustic ballads: Wheat Kings, Scared, ABAC. 38 can't tie their shoes. Nice riff (Bobby?), but overall the song is a weak link for me. No way is it better than Opiated. If his bride didn't like it, Saint Peter wouldn't mind.

I think 38 Years Old holds up reasonably well under the microscope of lyrical scrutiny. However, this is a song that I can easily overlook the lyrics, or some problems with the story, as I could never tire of hearing that lonesome-cry Rob coaxes out of his guitar during the solo. Or Paul’s ringing acoustic for that matter.

The manner in which Downie structures the narrative, starting with the prison break instead of the rape 18 years earlier, works well in the song. However there are a few questionable lines, beginning with the Mounties having a summertime “war to wage”. I’ve always thought that was a strange choice of words to describe the need to round-up some escaped convicts. Same for the mom using the word “horror” to describe Mike’s escape. Seems over-the-top.

I’ve also never been clear on how Michael (and I bet Downie regrets using that name for the “fictional” older brother) goes from the narrator’s bedroom to being taken away in the squad car. The song laments lost family time, yet the parents (or the younger brother) were very quick to turn Michael back in. I think they should have let Mike fill that “empty seat” for at least one meal. And finally, what was Mike thinking? After serving 18 years for killing, he must have been close to parole eligibility. He blew it!

[Killer Whale Tank]

Great point. But I actually don't hear these supposed flaws.

'War to Wage' - I think this aptly suits the militant mindset of police officers suddenly mobilized to round up 12 dangerous convicts; especially police in sleepy rural Ontario. You can almost picture these mounties bellowing, 'GO GO GO!!!' as they barrel out the door to track down these mofos.

'Horror' - well, what would you call it, if your daughter had been brutally raped and your son proceeded to murder the perpetrators, and then imprisoned for life? If that's not 'horror' from a maternal point of view, what is?

Finally, nothing in the song or lyric implies that the family 'turns Mike in.' More likely, the Mounties tracked him there (it'd be the first place they'd suspect, after all; and if the song has any real flaw, it's the idea that the convict would go home to his family - although that in itself isn't completely implausible. We don't know the details, and people aren't always rational calculators in such extreme situations).

Nothing wrong with this particular lyric IMHO.