Although I was a pretty big fan of the Hip back in their prime years, I sort of backed away – both as their albums became less essential (The top 6 of the 12 Tragically Hip albums rated by CBC were released in the 1980’s or 1990’s, the bottom six were all released after 2000) and my home life became more full with a spouse then a house then a couple kids running around.
But the recent news about Gord Downie’s illness has given many of us who got away from the band a reason to delve a bit deeper into their recent work more fully.
Actually, why don’t I try to rank my own list (keeping in mind I’ve just admitted I’m not as familiar with their later work whereas the earlier stuff played a major role in the soundtrack of my life through my entire 20’s)…
- Fully Completely (1992) [1 is this album’s CBC rank as well]
- Up To Here (1989) [3]
- Road Apples (1991) [5]
- Day For Night (1994) [2]
- Trouble at the Henhouse (1996) [4]
- World Container (2006) [11] * Not sure why this one jumped so high for me where I’m basically right in line with CBC otherwise? Maybe because I was back in University during my Masters in 2006 and that helped connect it with why the earlier albums meant so much to me?
- Music at Work (2000) [9]
- Phantom Power (1998) [6]
- We Are The Same (2008) [7]
- In Violet Light (2002) [8]
- Now For Plan A (2012) [12]
- In Between Evolution (2004) [10]
Oh, and honourable mentions to their earliest EP and their latest album, both of which somehow missed the cut for the CBC ranking. Depending on the day, that EP could be as high as 3.5 on my list whereas I really have no idea where the new album would rank as I’ve literally only listened to it a handful of times and often as background while I’m at work or whatever.
Anyhow, as an example of finding gems in their later works, here’s a great song posted to Facebook today by someone I knew in library school but is a song that never really registered for me before…
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