12/26/2023 0 Comments Gordon downie introduce yerselfLike Secret Path, the album is produced by Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew, who also co-wrote a number of the new songs.Ĭheck out the trailer for Introduce Yerself below. The music was recorded quickly and spontaneously, over two four-day sessions in January 2016 and February 2017, with many of the songs recorded as first takes. In Downie’s words, “Each song is about a person.” Introduce Yerself will be out October 27 on Arts & Crafts and is available for pre-order on Friday, September 29 via Arts & Crafts and Gord Downie. Today, Downie announced Introduce Yerself, a new double album with a whopping 23 songs. Downie also released the 2016 solo album Secret Path, which shone a light on Canada’s shameful history of residential schools.Īnd that’s not it. There’s already been the 2016 Tragically Hip album Man Machine Poem, its accompanying tour, which was a national celebration, and Long Time Running, the documentary about it which premiered at TIFF. Authors should not be contacted, targeted, or harassed under any circumstances.Gord Downie has been impressively prolific since his terminal illness was diagnosed. Gord Downie, Singer Songwriter, The Tragically HipĪll final editorial decisions are made by the Editor(s)-in-Chief and/or the Managing Editor. This isn’t an album to take lightly, but it’s still one to enjoy in its own way, even if it won’t be in an arena.Īs hard as goodbyes can be, they’re rarely so beautiful. Even when they’re short - “Yer Ashore” clocks in at a speedy 1:31 - they take the space they need to have maximum impact.Īs a result, they might not have the same longstanding place at campfires as many Tragically Hip classics, but they’ll live on in a quieter, more dignified way. It’s a credit to Downie and his producer that they give each song room to breathe, allowing the listener to spend time with each sentiment before moving on. It’s the combination of things like geese honking at the end of “The Lake” and the personal, letter-like specificity of each song that draws you in and ask you to reflect. The slow-building humanity of Downie’s finale is filled with tender jokes and references that work best as a whole, taken at once. It’s not because these songs are so complex that a listener could lose track by taking their headphones off for a second - it’s the opposite. Introduce Yerself is an intricate album, woven with humour and subtlety demanding the listener’s full attention. However, it’s also a clear example of how to listen to these songs. This song is a touching tribute to the victims of residential schools and a fitting capstone to Downie’s activism on behalf of Indigenous issues in Canada. Strings swell quietly in the background of the album closer “The North,” barely audible over Downie’s emotive delivery of lines referring to the presence of colonization and the “Canada we should never have called Canada.” Instead, Downie exercises an impressive amount of restraint while still exploring new avenues for his music. “My entire life / but I saw something there today / the love of my life.”Īlong with the amount of tracks it features, the thorough clarity of this record could be considered self-indulgent in less capable hands. “I always stared at the lake,” Downie sings. In Introduce Yerself, Downie sounds like a man taking a sober-eyed stock of the various pieces of his life. There’s nothing to decode in songs like “The Lake,” Downie’s tribute to Lake Ontario. While Downie’s tracks on the new album can still be enigmatic, that’s not always the case here. With The Tragically Hip, Downie’s lyrics were sometimes a challenge for the band’s most committed fans to analyze. Lyrically leaving it all on the table, Downie is confessional in Introduce Yerself, clearly aware these will be his last musical words. Often using first takes, the album takes Downie out of the rock band setting he grew famous under and re-introduces the Kingston artist in an intimate, reflective mood. Consequently, it’s impossible to listen to this record and separate it from these circumstances. 27, the bulk of the album -17 songs worth - was written and recorded soon after Downie was diagnosed with brain cancer in early 2016, before it was publicly announced. From the first haunting notes of the piano, Gord Downie’s Introduce Yerself is a slow goodbye that unfolds over the course of two years and 23 songs.
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