The one thing Sarah and I couldn’t get over when we were watching Gord Downie and the rest of the Hip perform was how effortlessly Downie has helped be sort of like a guiding hand for the less art intuitive.
What he represents is a gateway drug pusher for Canadian art, like that uncle who gives you a joint for graduating high school.
As such, Sarah wrote about it, and I took pictures of it, for Spinner.
You can read the whole related article by clicking here.
1. The Dears No Cities Left
2. Songs: Ohia The Magnolia Electric Co
3. Metric Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
4. The Coral Magic And Medicine
5. Sixteen Horsepower Olden
6. Danko Jones We Sweat Blood
7. Gord Downie Battle Of The Nudes
8. The Organ Sinking Hearts
9. Radiohead Hail To The Thief
10. Geoff Berner We Shall Not Flag Or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End
I must say, this is a mighty great year.
My #1 record this year was No Cities Left and it still holds up just as well all this time later. “Lost In The Plot” was the big single, a signature song which I love, but it was the double-shot epic tracks “Expect The Worse/Cuz She’s A Tourist” and “Pinned Together, Falling Apart” which really did it for me. They’re epic, sophisticated and they rock, all while maintaining their uniquely “Dears” narratives. These two songs done live at the time were particularly amazing, as they’d get stretched out into trance-like adventures. “Don’t Lose The Faith,” “Warm And Sunny Days,” “Never Destroy Us”… I know these songs inside out. Within the confines of “Canadian rock” or “Canadian indie” or whatever descriptive you want to use this remains one of the best records of the last decade.
The Dears “Pinned Together, Falling Apart”:
It would’ve been a heated internal debate for me at the time to put Songs: Ohia The Magnolia Electric Co. at #2. This was the transition record where Jason Molina, the mostly one-man band as Songs: Ohia became Magnolia Electric Co., a down-to-earth trucker-rock band in the vein of Crazy Horse. The change was weird to take at first, but over time the songs on this album emerged and they’re heart-striking works. There’s an internal struggle going on in this album that’s both intimately personal and universal to the human experience.
I love the playing around with the classic song trope of John Henry doing something. Songs: Ohia “John Henry Split My Heart”:
Ah, Metric’s Old World Underground, Where Are You Now? We were so young and innocent and unaware of Emily Haines’ prickly fits back then. It was all about dancing along to “Dead Disco” late at night. If time had stopped and Metric never did anything else ever the world would’ve probably been a better place.
Metric “Dead Disco”:
The Coral’s Magic And Medicine remains a totally slept on record here in the North of America. This record’s so hard to define. It’s sort of triangulated by the works of The Boo Radleys and Space, but at the same time remain totally outside of their worlds.
The Coral “Talking Gypsy Market Blues,” their slight Dylan return:
Clearly 2003 was the year I finally understood Sixteen Horsepower. Olden was a compilation record made up of a few different EPs, which usually makes for uneven listening, but I was completely shook and I now follow the works of band leader David Eugene Edwards closely. Olden is also one of the records that has helped me become more self-aware about the music I like. It’s not necessarily about genre anymore, but rather about intensity, purpose, gravity. I no longer care about half-measures and comfortable singalong songs. If I can’t see through to your soul in your music you’re just a circus performer.
Sixteen Horsepower “American Wheeze”:
It takes a lot for me to consider a song a match for the best of the Thin Lizzy catalog, but for simple balls-out rockers Danko Jones’ “I Love Living In The City” from We Sweat Blood is right up there.
Danko Jones “I Love Living In The City”:
My affection for Gord Downie’s solo work would continue with Battle Of The Nudes. It wasn’t quite the speak-to-me album that Coke Machine Glow was, but I still consider it a bold and brave work, complete with Sonic Youth moments and weird punk diversions. Downie could easily play out his career doing cash register rock in The Tragically Hip, but he continues to go for it. These are the ideals I respect in musicians.
Gord Downie “Pascal’s Submarine.” Not my favourite track on the record, but this album’s not well-youtubed.
I’m kinda bummed The Organ didn’t quite rule the world like I thought they would, but Sinking Hearts is still solid in a hey-it’s-the-girl-Smiths way. Haters on this EP were weird. It may not be perfect but it’s got passion.
Radiohead Hail To The Thief at #9? I think I let myself be run over by the hype train on this one. I never listen to Radiohead anymore and if I do, it’s certainly not this album.
Geoff Berner We Shall Not Flag Or Fail, We Shall Go On To The End was a pretty unexpected inclusion for me because, well, let’s face it, I’m not known as a klezmer-punk kinda guy. How We Shall Not Flag gets me is with the storytelling. “Volcano God” is brilliant and beautiful and “Maginot Line” is a valuable life lesson.
Geoff Berner “Maginot Line”:
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1 2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1 2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1 2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1 2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1 2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1 2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1 2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1 2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1 2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1 2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1 2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1 2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1 2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1 2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1 2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1 1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1 1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1 1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
1. Gord Downie Coke Machine Glow
2. The Strokes Is This It
3. By Divine Right Good Morning Beautiful
4. The Avalanches Since I Left You
5. Ours Distorted Lullabies
6. Black Rebel Motorcycle Club BRMC
7. The Dears Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique
8. Spiritualized Let It Come Down
9. Ashley Park The American Scene
10. The Constantines The Constantines
Since I started unearthing these Top 10 lists a week or so ago this is probably the first I’ve felt close to entirely comfortable with.
My #1 album in 2001 was Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow and I continue to maintain it’s a brilliant Cancon canon album. I think I might have even given it a 5 out of 5 rating at the time, which is something I’ve done max 10 times in my years of music writing. What’s so special about Coke Machine Glow is it’s so guilelessly “art.” The fact that it was a solo album by the lead singer of a beer-rock arena-level band was secondary. Here, Downie dove deeply into his poetic narratives and then surrounded those stories with alternately beautiful/weird/exciting complimentary music courtesy of The Diner Is Ruined and a cast of related Can-indie veterans. This is the album that proved that Downie was definitively on the side of good.
Gord Downie “Chancellor”:
Everybody had Strokes fever back in 2001 and it was totally deserved. Is This Is? was a super-relentless dance party. It was bold and free and it’s still a great listen today, which is more than I can say for every other Strokes record. It’s funny, I got this record, Spiritualized’s Let It Come Down and Mercury Rev’s All Is Dream on the same day and I remember the V2 Records rep at the time being mad that nobody cared about All Is Dream, but why would they? There were two other nuclear bomb statement albums on everyone’s desks.
“Last Nite,” if you’ve never wildly danced to this song at a club you’ve been at the wrong clubs:
I love By Divine Right and consider them one of the under-appreciated pillars of Canadian indie rock, so I was pretty excited when Good Morning Beautiful came out. In hindsight is more “good” than “great” an album — still Top 10, but probably lower. I would’ve ranked it this high at the time because of the epic hippie jam “Hugger Of Trees.” It’s a song that can cut through all my layers of Grinch.
By Divine Right “Hugger Of Trees”:
Man, The Avalanches’ Since I Left You. Four billion samples, legal bullshit, mystery… none of which matters because if you know this album at all and I say the words “Radio,” “Flight Tonight” or “Frontier Psychiatrist” you should be experiencing an immediate Pavlovian reaction.
The Avalanches “Since I Left You”:
The voice of Jimmy Gnecco from Ours remains one of the most powerful, most chilling things I’ve ever heard. When Ours’ Distorted Lullabies came I out I was convinced they were going to become the biggest band in the world. I’m not sure why they didn’t. I suspect drugs, record company bullshit, band troubles, etc., etc. — the usual stuff — all had a hand in it. Mostly though, I’ve come to learn over the years that most people don’t actually like intense music. They can’t handle the emotional gravity of it all and just want something to hum along to. In the grand scheme that’s probably why Ours never hit it. It’s the world’s loss.
Ours “Meet Me In The Tower”:
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are the perfect rock band. They’ve got black leather jackets, their music’s kinda noisy and dangerous, and the band members themselves are often difficult mumblers. Which all makes them hella cool.
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club “Spread Your Love.” I was at this “video shoot,” which wasn’t really a video shoot so much as a proper concert with pro cameras capturing everything:
This would be the second year in a row I had The Dears in the #7 spot, this time for Orchestral Pop Noir Romantique. The best thing about this EP is it gave the band an identity. Something that was theirs alone — which is extremely underrated a commodity in the music universe. This was the dangle that made people want to know more.
The Dears “Autotomy”:
At #8 was the aforementioned Spiritualized record Let It Come Down. This was supposed to be super-huge and it was. Something like 115 people worked on this record and it shows.
Spiritualized “Out Of Sight.” Fuck, this song’s big:
And in every Top 10 list there must be something you no longer care about. For this one it would be Ashley Park’s The American Scene. I remember really digging on this album when it came out, but I’ve never been back to it. And in the sign of true listener death for me — I haven’t bothered to rip the album into iTunes.
I haven’t ripped #10 into iTunes either. That would be The Constantines debut album. I feel no need or desire to revisit this record. I rode that hype train at the time, and enjoyed parts of that journey, and that’s enough.
Other album lists…
2015 Top Ten — SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart SUUNS + Jerusalem In My Heart is #1 2014 Top Ten — Sharon Van Etten’s Are We There is #1 2013 Top Ten — M.I.A.’s Matangi is #1 2012 Top Ten — Dirty Ghosts’ Metal Moon is #1 2011 Top Ten — Timber Timbre’s Creep On Creepin’ On is #1 2010 Top Ten — The Black Angels’ Phosphene Dream is #1 2009 Top Ten — Gallows’ Grey Britain is #1 2008 Top Ten — Portishead’s Third is #1 2007 Top Ten — Joel Plaskett Emergency’s Ashtray Rock is #1 2006 Top Ten — My Brightest Diamond’s Bring Me The Workhorse is #1 2005 Top Ten — Black Rebel Motorcycle Club’s Howl is #1 2004 Top Ten — Morrissey’s You Are The Quarry is #1 2003 Top Ten — The Dears’ No Cities Left is #1 2002 Top Ten — Archive’s You All Look The Same To Me is #1 2001 Top Ten — Gord Downie’s Coke Machine Glow is #1 2000 Top Ten — Songs: Ohia’s The Lioness is #1 1999 Top Ten — The Boo Radleys’ Kingsize is #1 1998 Top Ten — Baxter’s Baxter is #1 1996 Top Ten — Tricky’s Maxinquaye is #1
Risky Fuel 