SOUNDTRACK: THE TRAGICALLY HIP-In Violet Light (2002).
Back in 2000 or so, I
was a little down on The Hip’s releases. I may have even decided to give them a break for a while. But then I heard bits of In Violet Light and I felt that they were back to their strengths: anthemic rock with interesting hooks. And the disc scales back the total time to about 45 minutes, so there’s less bloat.
“‘Use It Up'” is a pretty standard fast rocker but there’s nice subtle sounds in the bridge that make it a bit more. But their two best songs in years come on this disc: “The Darkest One” and “It’s a Good Life if You Don’t Weaken.” “Darkest” brings back that smooth low end that gets you moving and Downie’s voice just soars above the music. And “Good Life” is a great slow builder, the kind they haven’t really done in a few albums. Again, the bridge is great.
It’s followed by “Silver Jet” which features some of the most unusual sounds that Hip guitarist have made. Squealing feedback sounds, which build to a great chorus. “Throwing Off Glass” is one of their infectious ballads.
There’s a couple of okay songs towards the end, but the album comes back to life with “Beautiful Thing” a catchy, building rocker and “Dire Wolf” a great ballad in which Downie’s voice and lyrics (along with some interesting country tinged guitar) make this a great track. And the album closer “Dark Canuck” is a slow builder. It starts off somewhat plainly, but it keeps ratching itself up over 6 minutes to end the disc on a high note.
The Hip are definitely moving into a more mature period at this point, but they’re still writing interesting songs that are full of intensity.
[READ: February 15, 2011] “Wireless”
This story has a few components that tie together very nicely. The major component is alcohol, for this is a story about an alcoholic. And what I liked about the construct of the story is that it seems to take a while to gain focus, like the alcoholic herself.
It opens with observations about people who collect or obsess over something (her friend has a Glenn Gould obsession –glennerd she calls herself). The story then tries to get us to meet the antagonist of the story, but, the story plays coy, making a joke out of how the two meet. Finally, Joan and Ned meet in a bar in Toronto. She’s from Vancouver, he’s from Newfoundland.
She is charmed by his east coast/Irish/Newfie ways and even though he hates to be seen as charming he assumes that this is a pick up so he lets it pass. Ned is in a trad band which plays lots of vulgar trad songs (sounds like a lot of fun,actually). They have many drinks together. He figures the night’s going well for him until we learn that Joan doesn’t like burly, hairy men, which Ned is. She doesn’t invite him back to her room, but he invites her to visit him in Newfoundland any time.
She can’t get him out of her head, so she plans an excursion to Newfoundland, under the guise of writing a piece about the east coast for her magazine. She argues that since that movie was filmed there and its very touristy now, it will be of interest to their readers. (I don’t know what that movie might be).
Ned is excited to see her and they quickly get to drinking. Ned’s Newfie hospitality makes him insist that she stay at his place that night, but frankly, her hotel is ever so much nicer than his house. Rather, after much internal debate, she invites him to stay in the hotel room.
The next day they do some sight-seeing together–the go for a hike to the icebergs. Ned is not as interested in the outdoors as Jane is, and Jane starts talking about how they (alcoholics) need to stick together and take care of each other (Ned is on his fifth cigarette by now). Ned is put off by this, and their relationship gets strained very quickly.
But Ned is not willing to let her go and he makes some promises to her which she is not sure how to read.
It’s a dark story, that’s for sure. I liked it, especially the way it came alive just before the end, but I had some complaints. There was too much in the way of grand proclamations about “alcoholics.” I got as annoyed by it as Ned. But the really complaint is that, by the end, Jane is clearly the only person who doesn’t see what Ned is doing (readers figured it out a page earlier than she did), and it makes the ending all the more disappointing because although there is resolution, it’s rather unsatisfying.
But I did enjoy the story, and the ending threw in some wonderful surprises. It just felt like the actual end missed a great opportunity to blow us away.
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SOUNDTRACK: MARY MARGARET O’HARA-Christmas E.P. (1991)
Mary Margaret O’Hara is a fascinating recluse. She released a cool, weird album in 1988 then did nothing for three years when she released this Christmas EP. Since then she hasn’t really released anything (except for a soundtrack).
I Just Read About That... 