How can a studio recording sound like a casual jam session
\neffort? Ask Gordon Downie and The Tragically Hip.<\/p>\n
This Canadian group enjoys superstar status in their home land,
\nbut America has remained a tough nut for them to crack. I’ve
\noccasionally dabbled in their music (and had the opportunity to
\ninterview Downie live on the radio way back in 1989), but I’ve
\nnever quite grasped the whole “go-with-the-flow” manner of The
\nTragically Hip.<\/p>\n
Their latest release
\nPhantom Power<\/i> doesn’t help me that much in this regard,
\nthough the band does create some entertaining music that should
\nplease their fans and critics alike.<\/p>\n
Recorded at a time when Canada was going through a severe ice
\nstorm (possibly the inspiration for the title of the album), Downie
\nand crew plow through twelve songs that almost sound effortless on
\nthe part of the band. To the listener, it almost sounds like the
\nband could play this material in their sleep – and, in a sense,
\nthis air of casualness hurts the overall effort. With such a loose
\nfeel, it’s sometimes hard to concentrate on the finer details of
\nthe album and its songs.<\/p>\n
What is striking about the band is that they can create a solid
\ngroove on both rockers (“Poets,” the groove created thanks to
\ndrummer Johnny Fay) or on an acoustic number (“Thompson Girl” –
\nthough this is proof that Downie shoudn’t try to hit ranges that
\naren’t comfortable to his voice).<\/p>\n
The Tragically Hip prove they can work some magic musically on
\nsongs like “Membership,” where the vocal work of Downie, guitarist
\nPaul Langlois and bassist\/organist Gordon Sinclair add tezture to
\nFay’s trap work and the six-string stylings of Robby Baker.
\nHowever, other efforts to capture such magic (like on “Fireworks”)
\njust doesn’t catch fire.<\/p>\n
\nPhantom Power<\/i> overall is a solid album, but the question
\nremains: Will this be the album that will break the band in the
\nUnited States? My thought: Possibly, though I thought some of the
\nwork off 1994’s
\nDay For Night<\/i> would have done the trick by now. If some
\nprogrammer takes a shine to such cuts as “Poets,” “Save The
\nPlanet,” “Bobcaygeon” and “Membership,” The Tragically Hip might
\njust become a name to deal with in the American world of
\nalternative rock.<\/p>\n
\nPhantom Power<\/i> is an album that should please The Tragically
\nHip’s fans, though the question of whether this album has the
\nenergy to charge up America is still up in the air.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27948,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[7549],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-39338","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-tragically-hip","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39338","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=39338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39338"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39338"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}