Album Review: Tragically Hip: Music @ Work

by Joseph Taylor

Tragically Hip

List Price: $16.97 Our Price: $11.88 You Save: $5.09 (30%) Availability: This title usually ships within 24 hours. Audio CD (June 13, 2000) Original Release Date: June 13, 2000 Number of Discs: 1 Wea/London/Sire; ASIN: B00004TDDT

A sticker affixed to the shrink-wrap on the Tragically Hip’s 1998 disc, Phantom Power, advised, "See Them Live." The Tragically Hip are a fierce live band and their studio recordings (they have one live disc, Live Between Us) convey a lot of their live power.  Although they show some obvious influences, they don’t really sound like anyone else. They may not be innovative in the way that, for example, Radiohead are, but they play great guitar-based rock better and more uniquely than many current alternative rock bands.

Their newest disc, Music @ Work, shows them in something of a transition, consolidating their strengths but moving in some intriguing directions. Like Phantom Power, it was co-produced by the band and Los Lobos’s Steve Berlin, with assistance from engineer Mark Vreeken. It opens with “Music at Work,” a typical T. Hip potboiler: two overdriven guitars and drummer Johnny Fay’s kickdrum buoy along an obscure lyric by vocalist Gordon Downie:

Everything is bleak
It’s the middle of the night
You’re all alone and
the dummies might be right
You feel like a jerk
My music at work
My music at work

Avoid trends and cliches
Don’t try to be up to date
And when the sunlight hits the olive-oil
Don’t hesitate
The night’s so long it hurts
My music at work

The Hip can play this kind of thing in their sleep and the song sounds like an obvious attempt to try to write a Tragically Hip song. They appear to be anxious to get it out of the way so they can move on to the more challenging material on the rest of the disc. As the guitars fade at the end of the song, we hear an unusual sound, a doctored keyboard or guitar perhaps, setting an ominous tone that segues into the next cut, "Tiger the Lion."  Downie begins to sing over this strange atmosphere:

This is Tiger the Lion
Gimme the Knuckles of Frisco
If there's danger in the language, gentlemen,
I suggest no further use of the two way radio.

After a discreet piano chord, the rest of the band crashes in and Downie sings a quote from avant-garde composer John Cage--lyrically these guys aren’t exactly making a bid to burn up the charts. The guitars are distorted and heavily reverberated and the song builds to a fine, moody solo by guitarist Rob Baker. It’s ambitious, it doesn’t sound like anyone else, and it almost works, but something about it, a willed attempt at strangeness perhaps, drags it down a bit.

If these two songs open the disc inauspiciously, things improve considerably from then on. “Lake Fever” begins with an acoustic guitar arpeggio and drums, accompanied by a few electric guitar trills. The song fills subtly as layers of guitar, keyboard and voices seep in, building to a powerful finish. The track that follows, “Putting Down,” showcases all the Tragically Hip’s strengths: passionate singing, layered, intricate guitar riffing , and, above all, a thumping backbeat (drummer Johnny Fay is the lifeblood of this band the way Charlie Watts is to the Stones).  “Putting Down” is no less a typical T. Hip song than the title track, but it flows more naturally.

Music @ Work contains a good balance of rockers and quieter tunes and it continues a trend, begun in Phantom Power, of bringing a little more timbral variety into The Tragically Hip’s recordings. It’s still a guitar record, but the addition of keyboards, midi sax, cello and, on one track, tabla, expand the band’s sound.  Even the songs that have no additional instrumental support beyond the band’s lineup show a difference in approach that demonstrates their significant growth as songwriters.  There’s more space in a lot of the arrangements, without sacrificing the symbiotic interplay between guitarists Rob Baker and Paul Langlois.  The more driving tunes have guitar and keyboard lines percolating in and out that make the disc a challenge to listen to--I keep catching new things every time I listen to it (headphones help).

There are songs on this disc that are totally unlike anything else the Tragically Hip has ever done, but you’d never mistake them for any other band’s. There is so much variety and even, at times, beauty in Music @ Work that I can easily forgive songs like “Tiger the Lion” that don’t quite come off.  “Sharks,” “Toronto #4,” and “The Bear” show more varied approaches to song arrangements than the band has demonstrated before, yet they don’t compromise the qualities that make the Tragically Hip so unique. Primary among those qualities is Gordon Downie’s voice. The power and conviction of his singing often contrasts with, even undercuts, his inscrutable lyrics.

If I were asked to pinpoint what it is that is so striking about this band, though, I wouldn’t say it was Downie’s singing, as much as I like it.  It’s the guitars--specifically the way they sound, their tone.  If you doubt the importance of this element in creating the character of a band, try listening to and telling apart any two guitarists on a modern rock station.  They sound alike; they sound like Peter Buck.  A great guitarist, to be sure, but we’ve already got one.

The Tragically Hip’s guitar sound is as distinctive as, for instance, the Smithereens’s and it has a similar visceral impact.  Paul Langlois’s rhythm guitar doesn’t play a passive or merely supporting role.  He demonstrates how crucial a great rhythm guitarist is to the sound of a band.  His instinctive rhythmic feel and his ear for the various tonal possibilities of an electric guitar create a solid foundation that the band can build its complex songs on.

Lead guitarist Rob Baker’s rhythmic sense is as sure as Langlois’s and he plays lines that color and reinforce the songs.  His solos are generally short and well thought out and they’re never showy--the band’s songs are so tightly constructed that empty virtuosity would break the spell.  Baker is in the tradition of great guitar players like Dave Davies and Mike Campbell who treat the song as paramount and construct their solos to serve it.

To focus on the guitars, however, would be to ignore the fact that the Tragically Hip function so well as a unit.  Drummer Johnny Fay tunes the snare drum high and hits it hard, but he knows when to lay back, as on “Stay,” where his accents on the high-hat have an almost fragile quality.  Gord Sinclair’s deceptively simple bass lines (buried in the mix, unfortunately, through much of the disc), give focus to even the most densely arranged songs.  The four musicians in the band have strong individual styles, but no one overpowers or vies for attention, which allows the focus to remain on Downie’s compelling vocals.

It says something about the isolationism of the American music scene that the Tragically Hip aren't as popular here as they should be (then again, even a homegrown talent like Freedy Johnston has trouble getting airplay).  Music @ Work entered the charts in Canada, the band's homeland, at number one. It's not just a matter of national pride; this band is as powerful as any current band and their songwriting is more varied and challenging than that of their peers.

I can’t deny that Gordon Downie’s lyrics are nearly impossible to grasp.  If impenetrable lyrics were a problem, though, REM would still be playing bars in Athens, GA.  The Tragically Hip’s message is actually pretty simple: Electric guitars plugged into tube amps cranked to a high volume and backed up by a strong kickdrum are a good thing.  Buy this album and their two best, Road Apples and Trouble in the Henhouse, and they’ll make you a believer.