Whew! That was a long day of
working, followed by more working, but I’m finally home and after five (mostly
enjoyable) days with this album it is time to write this review and move on
down the road.
Disc 717 is…. Fully Completely
Artist: The
Tragically Hip
Year of Release: 1992
What’s up with the Cover? A collage of boobs,
bloomers and people kissing fish, horrifically pressed together to create a
chimera of truly bad art.
Despite
the awfulness of this cover, the band decided to make the CD sleeve so it can
fold out into a poster version of the same thing. You know how when you see a
great piece of art in its original size in a gallery how much nicer it looks? It
doesn’t work with bad art.
How I Came To Know It: This record did very well in
Canada, and had multiple singles so it was hard to not hear it (more on that
later). I also knew the Hip from their two previous albums, but it was really
my friend Chris D. who made me finally appreciate this record by playing some
of the deeper cuts. He may have even bought it for me. Either way – thanks,
Chris!
How It Stacks Up: I have four studio albums by the Hip. Of the four
this one is near the top. It is hard to choose between it and “Up To Here” but
I’ll put “Fully Completely” second because of the cover. Hey – there have to be
consequences.
Rating: 4 stars
Over the years I’ve had a love-hate relationship
with the Tragically Hip (or as we call them north of the 48th, “The
Hip”). Unfortunately when “Fully Completely” came out I was really heavy on the
hate side of the ledger.
That’s because in 1992/93 when “Fully Completely”
was ‘fully completely’ dominating the radio, I was stuck in a nowhere job,
sorting bottles for minimum wage at a recycling depot. It was the first job I
ever landed with a university degree, and I had to fight to even get that. I
remember finding the irony of the situation decidedly unfunny. Years later I’ve
come to appreciate the humour of it all but at the time it was much tougher to
just give it the old shrug n’ chuckle.
At that time the bottle depot I worked at blared the
local rock station (100.3 “the Q”) through the warehouse to keep us energized. The
“Q”s arbitrarily adopted house band was the Tragically Hip, and they got played
what felt like every 15-20 minutes. It was like being Malcolm McDowell in “A
Clockwork Orange” being forced to listen to the old Ludwig Van; great at first
and then it just made me want to puke.
More than twenty years have passed since then, and while
I long ago abandoned the Q I’ve come back around to loving the Hip again. Very recently
I came to realize the album of my scorn back in 1992 was actually one of their
great achievements.
“Fully Completely” was a much more complicated album
than the blues-riff feel of their previous two records, “Road Apples” and “Up
to Here.” The groove is still there, but the band has adopted a lot more of a layered
sound. It could be the influences of grunge at this time, but I think it is
just a sign that the band were coming into their own as songwriters and not
afraid to make their music a bit more complicated.
After modest success many bands fail at this stage by
getting too wrought up in all the extra production they can suddenly afford in
the studio (I’m looking at you, “Crash Test Dummies”). “Fully Completely”
avoids this fate by using the production to reinforce and thicken the themes already
in the songs, rather than drown them. The Hip don’t lose the groove, but they
learn to stretch it in new directions.
On this listen, I found myself enjoying “Pigeon Camera” more than usual. I like
the way the song meanders around its centre in a very dreamy manner until it
hits the chorus and then it settles down strong into a perfect little refrain.
Kind of like a bird fluttering about before deciding to land.
Of course this song is not about pigeons. Lyrically,
I’m never entirely sure what lead singer Gord Downie is going on about, but
like any good singer he sells it so well I don’t get overly concerned about my
confusion. “Pigeon Camera” doesn’t
feel like it is about a camera either, although according to Wikipedia (which
is never wrong), pigeon cameras were a thing.
“Wheat Kings”
is also highly evocative with its imagery, “where
the walls that are yellow-grey and sinister/Hung with pictures of our parent’s
prime ministers.” I think it might
be about some sort of serial killer, but I can’t be sure. Like “Pigeon Camera,” I just know I like it.
“Locked in the
Trunk of a Car” feels similarly sinister, capturing the combination of restrictive
claustrophobia and terrible forward movement that is really only present when
locked in the trunk of a car.
My favourite lines on the album comes from “At the Hundredth Meridian,”:
“If I die of vanity, promise me,
promise me
You’ll bury me someplace I don’t
want to be
You’ll dig me up and transport
me, unceremoniously
Away from the swollen city
breeze, garbage-bag trees,
Whispers of disease and acts of
enormity
And lower me slowly, sadly and
properly
Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy
At the hundredth meridian, where
the great plains begin.”
Again, I don’t know for sure what this is all about
(although the idea of burying someone who dies of vanity where they don’t want to be is kind of awesome).
What matters is the song evokes a mood so well, and fills your head with images
and concepts to held set that mood.
There are minor quibbles for me on this album. The title-track
is unfocused and vagule shouty, and “Lionized”
doesn’t really land for me, despite the great groove guitar in it. However
neither song is bad enough to spoil the party. As much as I love “Up to Here,” “Fully
Completely” may be the true gateway album to the Tragically Hip, crappy cover
art and the terrors of working-poor bottle sorters notwithstanding.
No comments:
Post a Comment