If you’re not already familiar with The Tragically Hip, and more specifically if you’re not living in Canada, it’s near impossible to put into perspective how enormous and significant this band is for this country. Maybe only with the exception of The Beatles, no other artist in the history of music has achieved the levels of success, fandom and longevity as The Hip did in Canada. 10 years ago the unthinkable happened when frontman Gord Downie announced that he he been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Immediately following that the band announced a cross country tour, which would end with their final ever concert in their hometown of Kingston on August 20th 2016. The story behind this tour may be the most unprecedented success ever in music. A singer who was losing not just his memory, but his ability to formulate words and sentences, advised not to perform a single show setting out to perform 15 sold out arenas, with the band playing nearly half of their 30 year catalog across the country. The final show pre-empted The Olympics, and would go on to become the 2nd most watched TV broadcast in Canada’s history. A famous Canadian commentator has said that final show from August 20th 2016 stood alongside the moon landing as the most significant televised event in history. Gord Downie would pass away a little over a year later. I find it nearly impossible to rank The Tragically Hip’s albums. I have my personal favourites that never change, but my overall rankings are always in flux. I decided instead to go through their entire discography and rank each opening track and each closing track.
Opening Tracks
14 – Small Town Bringdown (The Tragically Hip – 1987)
The Hip’s first self titled EP only really gives you a glimpse at what they would sound like on their major label debut 2 years later. It’s their only album where songs were written by individual members and not the band as a whole. Several of the songs were written before Paul Langlois even joined the band. Small Town Bringdown is a fantastic song that resembles The Hip only slightly. It was written exclusively by Gord Sinclair, and has a more generic 80s bar band sound that the signature sound the band would be known for later. In fairness the EP was more or less a demo. Even though I rank this as the lowest of the album openers, I never hesitate to listen to it 3 or 4 times in a row anytime it comes up on shuffle.
13 – Morning Moon (We Are the Same – 2009)
The divisive albums among The Hip’s fanbase are without a doubt the two Bob Rock produced ones. While the previous album featured a slicker arena rock production, We Are the Same went almost in the complete opposite direction as a more acoustic based album. ‘Morning Moon’ stands out as the least likely album opener in the band’s entire catalog. It’s essentially a campfire song. I’m not as overly critical of the Bob Rock produced material as a lot of fans are, although after seeing the Amazon documentary series I have a different perspective on the album. It was the band at their least functional, and was more a Gord Downie and Bob Rock project than a full band effort. Having said that, ‘Morning Moon’ would fit perfectly in the middle of any other Hip album. It just catches you off guard as an opener. On the album’s release I absolutely loved the song, but as the years have gone by my love for Morning Moon has diminished as so many other tracks from the album have grown on me even more.
12 – Heaven’s a Better Place Today (In Between Evolution – 2004)
Of all album openers, ‘Heaven is a Better Place Today’ is hands down the one with the highest energy. You’ll almost be convinced The Hip were going punk with this album. Especially when the next track carries on with a very similar sound. The rest of the album drifts closer into traditional Tragically Hip sound as it progresses. Sadly this was the only album where my interest just wasn’t there when it came out initially. It took me until 2 years later after the next album was already out before I ever went back to listen to In Between Evolution. So in a way, every time I hear ‘Heaven is a Better Place Today’ it feels more fresh to me than other Hip openers. The flip side to that is I don’t have the same nostalgia as others.
11 – At Transformation (Now For Plan A – 2012)
What ‘At Transformation’ has going for it more than anything else is that feeling within the first few bars that you’re listening to a return to form for the band. After a few albums where the band experimented with some different sounds and different production techniques, this song immediately sounds like what you expect The Tragically Hip to sound like. Is it a little safe? Probably. It’s also in a lot of ways what the fan base needed to hear after the Bob Rock produced ones that preceded it. The band was just starting to get over some of their internal conflicts, and I can always imagine them working on this song and thinking ‘I don’t know if we’re all the way back, but we’re on the right track’.
10 – Gift Shop (Trouble at the Henhouse – 1996)
Gift Shop has everything you want in an opening track. It starts very soft and moody before suddenly kicking in to a heavier beat and tone. Trouble at the Henhouse is a very unique album for me, as I would consider it one of my very favourites and a true masterpiece start to finish. It’s also an album that works best as a start to finish listen, and at least for me is not one I can just pick a random track to listen to on its own. ‘Gift Shop’ is also one of only two songs (along with 700 ft Ceiling) that I feel could be plugged into any other Hip album and not feel out of place. Maybe that’s one of the only reasons Gift Shop is not ranked as highly for me. It’s a really solid song that in my mind doesn’t fully represent Henhouse as a whole as well as several other songs on the album do.
9 – Man (Man Machine Poem – 2016)
When the album ‘Man Machine Poem’ was released, it had only been about 3 weeks since the announcement of Gord Downie’s diagnosis, and the announcement of the final tour. The spotlight on the band was as high as it would ever be, and everyone listening to the opening track ‘Man’ were getting their first listen to the final album the band would ever record. The context of the time has a lot to do with anyone’s opinion of the song. What sets the album as a whole apart is the fact that the opening and closing tracks are essentially slightly reworked versions of the same song. Some people prefer the mellower and more somber ‘Man’ while others would lean more towards the heavier ‘Machine’. Aside from the brilliantly emotional and somber tone of ‘Man’ is the use of electronically altered vocals at one point in the song. It’s a small detail that makes the song stand out so much.
8 – Yer Not the Ocean (World Container – 2006)
As I already mentioned, the Bob Rock produced albums divide the Hip’s fan base more than any others. I personally love World Container as an album. They honestly could not have picked a better lead off track than ‘Yer Not the Ocean’. It’s a straight forward arena rock anthem that you can listen to once and have it stuck in your head for days. As much as I love the album, I can understand some fan’s opinion that Bob Rock overproduced it. A few songs definitely drown out the rest of the band’s contributions, but that’s not the case at all with ‘Yer Not the Ocean’. While not my favourite song on the album, it is the one where you can really hear all 5 members equal voices throughout.
7 – Are You Ready (In Violet Light – 2002)
I’ve always seen similarities between ‘Are You Ready’ and ‘Yer Not the Ocean’. Obviously they’re openers on back to back albums, but the albums themselves could not be more different. There’s a simplicity in the song structures and lyrics, and you know when the songs were being written the band probably envisioned 15,000 people singing along in an arena. Sometimes it’s the little details in a song that win me over more than others. In the case of ‘Are You Ready’ I always hear the slightest bit of an echo on Gord’s vocals, as if the song was mixed to sound like a live recording. It sets the tone for the album, and is just a pure fun opener. You also can’t get a better title to open up an album with than ‘Are You Ready?’
6 – Little Bones (Road Apples – 1991)
Road Apples kicks off with ‘Little Bones’ featuring maybe the greatest guitar riff the band ever composed. It’s not just the guitar riff, but the bass and drums and vocals are so perfectly synchronized throughout. It’s no mystery why this became one of the most popular singles, and one of the most popular live songs the band ever had. ‘Little Bones’ is one of the handful of Road Apples songs that sort of end the era of the blues rock club band, as a lot of this album started the transition into the more mature and complex songwriting the band would be known for through the rest of their career. The lyrics are chaotic and vividly descriptive. Gord Downie’s vocals have so much intensity and power. Like so many of their best songs, its so much easier to pick apart the lyrics in blocks of 2-4 lines than to try and understand the entire song’s meaning. One of the most fun details behind the writing comes in the story that the chorus came up about when someone literally told Gord to “eat that chicken slow, its full of all them little bones” and he decided to turn that into a song.
5 – My Music At Work (Music @ Work – 2000)
I can remember hearing My Music at Work the first time and being completely caught off guard. It was so catchy, so simple and straight forward, but in the most brilliant way. I don’t think The Hip had ever released a more instantly radio friendly song. The bridge is even filled with “la la la da da das”. I don’t remember anyone being upset that the song was as mainstream sounding, because it still sounded like only a song The Hip could come up with. The album Music @ Work is kind of in a grey area. A lot of fans either look at it as the first album that wasn’t completely knocking it out of the park, or they look at it as the last of the classic Tragically Hip albums. The band has a completely unique sound, but there is a subtle formula to a Tragically Hip song, and it typical is to end with a minute or so instrumental. I’m sure there are a few others, but this was the first time I was consciously aware that the formula was broken, and the vocals would continue to the end. It’s another one of those small details that stands out and makes you take notice.
4 – Blow at High Dough (Up to Here – 1989)
While their debut EP had gained a decent enough following in 87, it was really ‘Blow at High Dough’ that people were introduced to the band with. ‘Blow at High Dough’ is one of the big tracks of their early days, when they just cranked out guitar rock tracks one after the other, but I would argue that there’s a lot more to it than others like New Orleans is Sinking or Little Bones. They play with tempos. They change distortion levels throughout. Gord Downie’s vocals go from soft to growling. Even though I didn’t really discover the band until several years and several albums later, this song is so engrained in everyday life that I can’t even remember a time I didn’t know it word for word. I have no memory of hearing it the first time, and yet it feels like I always knew it. That’s really what a classic song is.
3 – Poets (Phantom Power – 1998)
If ‘My Music At Work’ is The Tragically Hip doing the most radio friendly song in the best possible way, ‘Poets’ is kind of the exact opposite. It’s unusual, weird, and has a rhythm to it you can’t even figure out. Even the lyrics are baffling. I’m not even saying just in terms of figuring out what the song is about, but how Gord Downie came up with lines like “Spring starts when a heartbeat’s pounding, When the birds can be heard above the reckoning carts doing some final accounting, Lava flowing in Superfarmer’s direction, He’s been getting reprieve from the heat in the frozen food section”. I can’t even begin to imagine how he comes up with even one of those lines, let alone how he manages to sing and time it so perfectly to the music. ‘Poets’ is an anomaly of a song. You can’t describe it, and yet if I were to give a list of Hip songs to someone unfamiliar with the band, Poets would be near the top of the list. Once you hear it once you can’t get it out of your head, and you’ll spend a lifetime trying to figure out what about it works so well.
2 – Courage (Fully Completely – 1992)
I was a kid still when Courage was released as the 3rd single from Fully Completely. I didn’t even have my own taste in music yet, but hearing this one song for the first time is one of the things that developed my overall taste in music. The album Fully Completely was where the band fully transitioned from blues rock band to being their own thing, and the opening of ‘Courage’ perfectly sells the arena rock sound that made this album possibly the biggest rock album in Canadian music history. There are some dark songs on this album, and some very emotional songs. so I always loved that it kicks off with something that at least musically sounds so uplifting and fun. ‘Courage’ is hands down one of the most iconic songs the band ever released, in terms of endless radio airplay over 30 years later, and as one of their biggest concert staples all the way until their final show. With a lifetime of music I’ve been exposed to, I’ll always have a soft spot for a song that made such a big impact that I can literally remember where I was, and how I felt when I heard it the first time.
1- Grace, Too (Day For Night – 1994)
Last year there was a months long podcast series called ‘The Tragically Hip Top Forty’ where a huge poll was conducted and voted on by fans to determine the top 40 songs by the band. I don’t know whether many people were surprised that Grace, Too was near the top, although I would bet most people would have thought it would finish in the top 5 and not necessarily #1. I also feel like there was a period when Day For Night was not considered the classic in the same category as the albums that surrounded it before and after. That seems to have changed over the years, as you will so often hear people pick Day For Night as their favourite Hip album even over Fully Completely or Phantom Power. It’s also my personal favourite by a wide margin. To put into perspective how big the band was at the time this came out in 1994, the album went triple platinum in only 4 days. It would take decades for any American album to achieve those kind of sales in an entire week, and The Hip’s Day For Night did it in 4 days. Even considering how much it sold, the album and ‘Grace, Too’ were not as easily accessible for casual listeners the way their earlier music had been. It was a big song like all of their songs were, but the reputation of this song I believe has so much to do with its impact as a live performance. It would be the song they played on their famous Saturday Night Live appearance in 95, where Gord Downie famously flubbed the first line of “She says I’m fabulously rich” into “She says I’m tragically hip” and he basically never sang it any other way again. For most of their career it was almost always the concert opener. The song is moody, a bit trippy, and builds to such a massively epic scale that it really just has to be listened to.
Closing Tracks
14 – Goodnight Josephine (In Between Evolution – 2004)
It pains me to put anything at the bottom. It’s even harder putting ‘Goodnight Josephine’ at the bottom, as when I did hear the album for the first time, it was one of the songs that stood out the most to me. To be completely honest, over the years as I have revisited In Between Evolution, I’ve found it’s the one album my opinions fluctuate on the most. Sometimes I consider it one of their best, and sometimes I consider it one of their weakest. At the moment of writing this off my most recent listen, I would put it on the lower end, and specifically I found that many other songs stood out more to me than ‘Goodnight Josephine’. To rank a closing track I feel one criteria is whether you can picture anything else closing the album out, and I’m not sure that this HAD to be the closer, You could have popped it in anywhere else in the track order and it wouldn’t have made that much of a difference. Great song, but easily the one that I wouldn’t deem essential as a closer.
13 – Country Day (We Are the Same – 2009)
I don’t want to dump on We Are The Same, and I don’t typically find myself influenced by others opinions and arguments. At the same time, the common criticism of Bob Rock overproducing the album is without a doubt most audible on the closing track. I personally love ‘Country Day’ as a song, but the more you listen to it, the more you can hear unnecessary additions that distract a little from the absolutely brilliant song underneath all the extra layers of strings, and overdone background vocals. It’s not so much I can’t enjoy the song, but its enough to make me wish they left the song simpler. I can also understand the concept of We Are The Same as an album was to be much mellower, and there was probably the thought that you needed to do something to dress up the songs a bit.
12 – Emperor Penguin (Phantom Power – 1998)
I worry that ranking anything from Phantom Power this low will make me some enemies. It’s one of the most popular and beloved albums the band ever released. I’m just as fond as the album as anyone, and ‘Emperor Penguin’ is a great song, but there are just so many more on Phantom Power that I love more. And obviously so many more closing tracks from other albums I love more. I can give a similar comment as I did for Goodnight Josephine, in that I don’t immediately hear this as being a necessary closer. I could probably pick 2 or 3 other songs from the album that they could have closed out on. Having said that, unlike Goodnight Josephine, this does fit better as a closer.
11 – Opiated (Up To Here – 1989)
More than any other song on this list, ‘Opiated’ is the one that I’ve come around on the most recently. If I had posted this 6 months ago, it might have even been at the bottom for me. For whatever reason I’ve just been really into this song over the last few months. Even though Up To Here was their breakthrough album, and its still worshipped by many, I personally find it to be a bit unbalanced in terms of sound. You can hear some songs that sound a little dated, meaning they would have fit better on their 1987 EP before the sound was fully developed. Most of the songs are unbelievable and fit perfectly. I actually put ‘Opiated’ into a category of its own, in that it sounds more like what would follow on the next album. That’s one of the reasons I’ve come around more on ‘Opiated’ lately. As the closing track its almost like a sneak preview on where the band would be in another 2 years. That makes it great when listening to the 2 albums back to back. It’s a really unique way of viewing a song that completely changes the way you hear it.
10 – Impossibilium (Day For Night – 1994)
Day For Night is by far my favourite album from the band. The opening track ‘Grace, Too’ made #1 on that list. Of the 14 songs on Day For Night, I would probably rank the song ‘Impossibilium at #10. That speaks more to how strong Day For Night is as an album, because despite this being in the lower tier of my favourites on the album, it’s such a good closing track. There are certain preferences I have when it comes to ranking a closing track, and one of them is whether it ends on a big bang. I wouldn’t necessarily say that Impossibilium does, though. I can see why it was picked, because there are only a few traditional rock songs on Day For Night, and ‘Impossibilium’ is one of them. It’s also just such a fun word to say.
9 – Last of the Unplucked Gems (Road Apples – 1991)
We’re well into the songs that I have no real complaints about. Ranking ‘Last of the Unplucked Gems’ here all comes down to the short length of the song, and that every time I hear it I almost feel it’s more of a hidden track than an album closer. It breaks the Tragically Hip format by leading with the instrumental part and then only starting with the vocals close to half way through the song. It doesn’t sound anything like the other songs on Road Apples, and similar to my notes on ‘Opiated’ it almost gives you a sneak preview into the sound that would develop with the band later on. I just wish it were longer than 2:04. Anytime this has been played live the band will go for up to 5:00. It really allows you to appreciate both the instrumental intro and the vocal parts so much more. My only criticism of the album version of this song is that it comes across as a sneak preview of a sneak preview.
8 – Eldorado (Fully Completely – 1992)
There’s a quirkiness to ‘Eldorado’ that I’ve always loved. Most of the album Fully Completely are big arena rock songs, with many of them being quite dark, and others being just hugely epic. What works well with ‘Eldorado’ as a closer is that it’s so simple and repetitive in a good way. Just a single brief guitar riff plays throughout. And by throughout I mean the guitar riff doesn’t change at all. Same for the verses, chorus, and all instrumental parts. Almost all of Gord Downie’s lyrics are tough to interpret when you look at the song as a whole, but he was the master of putting words and lines together that make you think. Sometimes they make you think because you get what he’s poetically saying, and sometimes they make you think cause you have no idea what it’s about. I wouldn’t necessarily rank ‘Eldorado’ as my favourite song based on the sound, although it is ridiculously catchy, but the lyrics always amuse me. What does “hoove a doo” mean? Does hardwood smell like coffee? And of course “The mention of Berlin makes me sexy”. I’m not one to read into or consider the meaning of lyrics much, but he writes such interesting words that you have to at least try. And at the very least they’re fun words to put together.
7 – Highway Girl (The Tragically Hip – 1987)
While the opening track of the debut EP ranked at the bottom just because it didn’t sound like the band The Hip would become, the closing track ‘Highway Girl’ is ranked higher for the exact opposite reason. More than any of the other songs on the EP, this sounds exactly like the band they would evolve into on every future recording. Not to continue to talk about how live versions are better, but more than any other song the band ever recorded, Highway Girl got the biggest bump up live. It was really the only song from the EP they continued to play for years to come. Even the recorded version is by far the best song on the EP. I also should say the true closing track on the EP may be up for dispute, as the CD version and digital versions features the song ‘All Canadian Surf Club’ as the final bonus track, which guaranteed would have been at the bottom of this list. For arguments sake I’m counting Highway Girl as the true closer, as All Canadian Surf Club is always listed as a ‘bonus track’. Plus Highway Girl is tailor made to be a closing track.
6 – As I Wind Down the Pines (Music @ Work – 2000)
The album Music @ Work is maybe the band’s most underrated, at least in my opinion. I wouldn’t say its a perfect album, but way better than most give it credit for. I’m not usually as into the softer acoustic songs, yet I love everything about ‘As I Wind Down the Pines’. It’s barely 2 and a half minutes, but doesn’t feel as abbreviated as ‘Last of the Unplucked Gems’. It’s an extremely simple recording, with just an acoustic guitar, Gord Downie’s vocals, and some of the best background vocals at only a very select spot in the song. Music @ Work the album gives you so much variety in the sounds. While there are 2 or 3 songs I could maybe cut from the album, the closing track is exactly what it should be in both sound and placement on the album.
5 – Goodnight Attawapiskat (Now For Plan A – 2012)
The general consensus among fans and even the band themselves is that the albums from the later years (2004 and on) were not the strongest. Not bad by any means, just not as perfectly cohesive and “finished” as the earlier ones. I feel similar, but the one thing I will say is by the later albums the band just got better at composing and selecting closing tracks. The fact that 3 of my top 5 closers will be from their final 4 albums says something. ‘Goodnight Attawapiskat’ is one of the handful of songs on Now For Plan A where you can tell the band was starting to click again. It sounds like every instrument has its own voice in the song. Gord Downie’s vocals are some of his best. It also really helps to view the song in the context when you know the story behind it. Gord Downie had been visiting the northern First Nations community of Attawapiskat, and he talked the band into performing an exclusive concert for the town. They went up with no cell reception, met the residents, and performed an intimate concert. The lyrics don’t really hit you over the head with a message, as Gord’s lyrics never really did. I read it as more of a tribute to the community and not a social or political commentary, but I always loved Gord’s comments on the Amazon documentary series, where he talked about trying to bring awareness to the neglect of northern First Nations communities. “Maybe I’m not painting an accurate picture, but at least I’m trying to paint a picture”.
4 – The Dark Canuck (In Violet Light – 2002)
I can’t say enough good things about the album In Violet Light. It’s in my top 3 from The Hip, and I could listen to it every day for a year and never get sick of a single song. ‘The Dark Canuck’ is unabashedly Canadian in title, but not in its lyrics or sound. One thing most Canadians have always loved is that the band never shied away from being viewed as “too Canadian” even when advised by labels to not identify too strongly with one country. They could have called this song anything, but they wanted to call it ‘The Dark Canuck’ and didn’t care if it alienated anyone outside of Canada. The thing I appreciate the most about the song is how its almost two songs in one. The first half and the second half seamlessly blend together and form a sort of mini Suite to close the album out on. Each halves could easily have been their own songs, but somehow they just work that much better blended together as one.
3 – Machine (Man Machine Poem – 2016)
I can echo everything I said about the album’s opening track ‘Man’ from the previous ranking when talking about the closing track ‘Machine’. They’re uniquely reworked versions of the same song, yet stand on their own without either feeling like a reprisal. I prefer the heavier and drum heavy ‘Machine’ between the two, but what I always found most interesting is how they would almost seem like they should be reversed if this were an earlier album, or made by any other band. You would think the rawer more traditional rock song would open the album, and the mellower somber version would close. Honestly, ‘Machine’ is much closer to the overall sound of the Man Machine Poem album, which is why I feel it would normally work better as an opener, but there’s something so brilliant about swapping them in what would be their final album. Fans already knew of Gord’s diagnosis by the time the album was released, and it’s just so much easier of a listen to start on a more somber emotional note and end off with a great rock version. You leave with the final song of the band’s discography sounding like The Hip of old.
2 – World Container (World Container – 2006)
I’ll say again that while I understand the point of view some fans have that the two Bob Rock produced albums are a little overproduced in comparison to the rest of the band’s catalog, I personally think it works brilliantly on World Container. And the closing title track ‘World Container’ is the best case for why it works. This song has grown on me so much over the last 20 years. I can’t remember having a strong feeling on it when the album came out, but with each listen I love it more and more. While the heavy production on ‘Country Day’ on the following album I feel holds that back, the string arrangements and almost rock opera like arrangement of ‘World Container’ actually elevates the track. The song is ridiculously epic, the background vocals are just as prominent as Gord’s leads, and I always feel like it’s something that would fit on one of The Who’s rock operas. It’s like The Tragically Hip’s version of ‘Love Reign O’er Me’.
1 – Put It Off (Trouble at the Henhouse – 1996)
I said it on the opening track rankings that for me Trouble at the Henhouse is more about the sound of the album as a whole from start to finish than it is about any individual track. That might make it weird that I picked an individual track as my #1 closer, but that’s because more than any other song on Henhouse I feel ‘Put It Off’ perfectly sums up the sound of the entire album. The alternating between the quieter moody verses and the balls to the wall chorus. The craziest thing is even when the band kicks in with the instruments of the chorus you can barely hear any change in Gord’s vocal delivery. He goes from a near whisper on the verses to a slight volume and power increase on the chorus, yet he never belts it out like many band’s predictably would. A great closing track makes you want to start the album over again immediately, and because the album is so cohesive I definitely get that here, but I would say with Trouble at the Henhouse its more like I start the album from the beginning wanting to get to that perfect ending of ‘Put It Off’ where you can almost hear bits and pieces of every sound that came before it coming together.
Rank This List 