Tragically Hip
Music At Work
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For $13.75

I’ve always thought of The Tragically Hip as sort of the Canadian REM. And if the comparison holds true, Music At Work may be the band’s Monster. This is consistently inventive arena rock meant to be played loud. Charismatic lead singer Gordon Downie, like Michael Stipe, is a follicly-challenged vocalist who sings obtuse lyrics in an impassioned, often emotionally off-kilter voice. Behind him is the meat and potatoes hard rock guitar interplay of Rob Baker and Paul Langlois, along with bassist Gord Sinclair and drummer Johnny Fay.

Los Lobos saxophonist Steve Berlin again brings his production skills to the proceedings here as he did on the band’s 1998 album Phantom Power. The songs are linked together with nary a pause between tracks. But don’t worry, it’s not a concept album. At least I don’t think it is.

The opening "My Music @ Work" gets things off to a strong start with crunching power chords, pounding drums and harmonies. It might be the Hip’s best shot at a hit in awhile, if of course American radio gave a damn. Hugely popular in their native Canada, the Hip over their more than decade long career have yet to achieve much more than an ardent cult following in the States or to garner much airplay. But that hasn’t stopped them from trying. On Music At Work, the band continues to mine mostly the same hard-rocking territory they have for years.

Downie’s deft and often daft wordplay continues to be a primary component as well, for better or worse. That wordplay can become too clever and wearying on tracks like "The Completists" and the paranoid air traveler ode "Freak Turbulence." More often, the lyrics are just beautifully, frustratingly obscure as on "Putting Down": "Browbeaten out from underneath your dress/ the documented indigenous civilization flipped its desk." And then there’s this line from "Train Overnight": "I loaded the variables like masterpieces from under the germ-led advance." Still, trying to decipher Downie’s impenetrable, eccentric ravings is part of the fun of a Hip record.

Elsewhere, Downie’s sing-songy delivery nearly wears out its welcome on "Sharks." He occasionally sounds like a cross between former Talking Head David Byrne and Peter Garrett of Midnight Oil. On "Tiger the Lion" his voice even resembles Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices as he pays homage to avant-garde composer John Cage. He seems to sound best though on tracks like the pretty "Toronto #4" with singer Julie Doiron providing a nice female vocal counterpoint to his weathered voice or on the catchy "Lake Fever."

The band’s best showcase may be "The Bastard" on which they seem to come together as a unit most effectively. "Wild Mountain Honey" sounds like a lost Led Zeppelin chestnut. The Hip showcase their softer side as well on pretty acoustic numbers like "Stay" and the album closing "As I Wind Down the Pines." The latter song includes this couplet: "To play without stopping or pause/ Not for silence/ Not for applause." Kind of sounds like a Tragically Hip credo.

Music At Work doesn’t contain any songs as great as say "Nautical Disaster" from 1995’s Day For Night or "Courage" from 1993’s Fully Completely. Nor does it have the consistency of their 1989 major label debut Up To Here. But these guys have set the bar pretty high. It’s great to hear them continue to try and continue to experiment. The Hip’s music is still at work.

Check out the band's web site at www.thehip.com

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