Canada’s The Tragically Hip are a band you either love or are
\nleft scratching your heads about. Gordon Downie and crew have, for
\nover 10 years, been wowing fans across the border while wondering
\nwhat they need to do to achieve mammoth success in the States.<\/p>\n
\nCoke Machine Glow<\/i>, Downie’s first solo effort, is somewhat
\nreminiscent of the work he’s done with The Tragically Hip… at
\nleast in my admittedly limited dealings with his full-time project.
\nAt times melodic and beautiful, at times experimental and
\nconfusing, this is a disc which, at the very least, cannot be
\ncalled dull. Awkward, yes; dull, no.<\/p>\n
I guess that anyone who is familiar with The Tragically Hip will
\nbe ready for Downie’s stream-of-consciousness musical approach,
\ngrabbing whatever genre seems to fit the mood and working it into a
\nmusical stew. And, at times, this works with incredible results.
\nDownie must have gotten hold of some Chris Issak albums before
\ngoing in to record this disc, as “Trick Rider” sounds akin to the
\n“Wicked Game” crooner with its light country airs. “Elaborate” is
\nsimilar, though it’s much less successful.<\/p>\n
Downie also shows he’s learned his lessons with the Hip, as
\nsongs such as “Vancouver Divorce,” “SF Song” and “Chancellor” all
\nare quirky but charming in their own ways – often deviating from
\nthe previous song musically in ways the casual listener would not
\nexpect. Sure, it’s the musical equivalent of being in a prize
\nfight, but Downie makes it kind of interesting to follow… at
\nleast for the first half.<\/p>\n
Where
\nCoke Machine Glow<\/i> starts to fall apart first is in the
\nspoken-word pieces. “Starpainters,” which opens the album, is okay,
\nbut nothing great; had this been the only example, it would have at
\nleast been managable. But there are no less than three such pieces
\non this disc – the last one, “Insomniacs Of The World, Good Night,”
\nbeing incredibly difficult to get through. If it had been a
\none-minute track, it would have been sufferable; at over five
\nminutes, it’s grating.<\/p>\n
The other difficulty with
\nCoke Machine Glow<\/i> is that Downie is not able to maintain the
\nlevel of musical creativity and interest on the second half of the
\ndisc. Tracks like “Mystery,” “Yer Possessed” and “Every
\nIrrelevance” just don’t have the same snap that the outstanding
\nsongs do – and it sometimes feels like Downie is being trapped by
\nhis own preconceived notions of his music.<\/p>\n
Maybe it’s that
\nCoke Machine Glow<\/i> tries to do too much for a first effort.
\nMaybe it’s that Downie is too intertwined as the leader of The
\nTragically Hip to make a musical statement that would make
\nlisteners forget about his “day job”. Maybe it’s that the second
\nhalf of this disc just isn’t as strong as the first.
\nCoke Machine Glow<\/i> is an album that tries, and Downie does a
\nhalfway decent job of making his own voice heard. If only this had
\nbeen a strong album – not a strong half-album.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6619],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-37131","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-gordon-downie","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/37131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37131"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=37131"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=37131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}