For our wedding anniversary, Cathy bought me a new release from The Tragically Hip. It’s a six track CD mastered from sessions during the recording of Road Apples in 1991. The tapes were only rediscovered within the last couple of years, as this long form review and interview chronicles.
I realise this release probably isn’t of interest to most
people, but I never I thought I would hear new songs from my favourite band
ever again!
Even though The Hip are my favourite band, I wasn’t expecting much from the CD. These are
songs that didn’t make it onto the album, gleaned from thirty year-old
recordings. ‘Lost songs’ are generally lost for a reason. However, I was
pleasantly surprised at their quality. They’ve been touched up a bit by the
band while working on the project. The key component from those original sessions would be the
irreplaceable voice of the late Gord Downie, the lead singer who sadly passed
away four years ago. Fortunately, Gord's voice was captured well on
the tapes.
Musically, the songs definitely belong to the early part of
the Hip’s career. They fill a gap in the timeline between the bluesy tracks on
Up to Here and the more expansive songs on Road Apples. I would be interested
to hear songs from the recording sessions for Fully Completely, the next album
in the Hip’s discography, when their music went heavier on the basslines. Road
Apples was a transitional album itself, but the band’s sound moved on
considerably in the short space of time between the release of Road Apples and
the recording and release of Fully Completely.
Who knows, maybe another box of tapes will turn up?
As a fan and completist, I was always going to want this
album. I’m just really glad that it was better than my limited expectations.
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