Quick hits: Pondering Polaris edition, Pt. II

I long ago came to the conclusion that Rock Plaza Central just aren't my thing. For all the creativity they showed in coming up with the concept for their last album, as far as I was concerned the band basically came off as a boring, pretentious, second-rate version of Neutral Milk Hotel. As for their earlier albums...let's just say that, absent the concept of their later work, I didn't find much to enjoy.

I can't say that the band's newest release, ...At the Moment of our Most Needing, or, If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone, moves me into the "fan" column. The title is needlessly long (which rubs me the wrong way far more than it should), Chris Eaton still sounds like he desperately wants to be Jeff Mangum and, for the most part, I find the songs as boring as their predecessors.

All that said, I don't completely hate ...At the Moment of our Most Needing..., which marks a huge step up for me from my feelings towards their past efforts. Opener "Oh I Can" may drift and meander for five minutes, but once you get past the fact it has zero structure, it's actually kind of lovely to listen to. And on "We Are Full of Light (That Blinds Us at the Moment of Our Most Needing)", I come about as close to liking to the band as I've come, actually going back and relistening to the song several times just because it's so incredibly nice. It's not quite enough to make me say I enjoyed the album, but it's enough of a step forward that I can honestly say that when I was making my Polaris list, I had to do a couple of go-arounds before I finally crossed ...At the Moment of our Most Needing, or, If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren't Alone off, which is a couple more go-arounds than I ever would've predicted in the first place.



I also never would've predicted that I'd feel so little love for Attack In Black's latest, Years (By One Thousand Fingertips). After all, even if I didn't love Marriage, I still thought it did a good job of establishing the band as potential heirs to The Constantines. Moreover, I thought that the band's other 2008 album, Curve of the Earth, was outstanding -- not just in terms of the music, but also in the way it showed that the band could pull off acoustic softness just as well as they could do louder rock.

The problem with Years is that it doesn't seem to have as much of a point. The band generally seems to be going for a full-on lo-fi aesthetic, but they seem to have forgotten that even most lo-fi songs need to go somewhere, eventually. As a result, tracks like "Messenger Bird" and "Birmingham" drift along aimlessly, basically establishing the fact that Attack in Black have ideas for songs, but not quite the energy to flesh those ideas out. There are signs of life here and there -- "Seeds", for example, shows a bit of life, as does Leather Jacket" -- but for the most part, Years sounds more like a collection of rough sketches than an actual album proper.



Lastly, I didn't really have any expectations one way or another for We Are the Same, the latest from The Tragically Hip. After all, setting aside the fact that they're far, far bigger than pretty much every other band I've ever written about (and thus not really in need of a post on some random blog), I'm also long past the point where I've paid any attention to what they do. I mean, like pretty much every other Canadian, I went through a Hip phase at one point, but that was about a decade ago, and no matter how much fun it was seeing them perform at Woodstock '99, I can't say I could even name a song they've released in the '00s.

That said, my interest in the album was piqued when I saw a few positive mentions of the albums on the Polaris juror message board, so I figured that it may have been time to give them another chance.

Now that I've listened to it...well, it's pretty much exactly what I've come to expect from the band: it's Gord Downie waxing poetic over well-produced, mid-tempo rock songs. By this point, they've basically reached the point where they've gone beyond the whole good/bad dichotomy, and they exist in a state of just being them. I don't mean that in a bad way, necessarily -- after twenty years, the fact that they've remained so consistent should be a point of pride -- just that there aren't any surprises here. Songs like "QueenOfTheFurrows" and "Morning Moon" follow squarely in the tradition of loads of other Hip singles from the past twelve to fifteen years. They're fun, and if they came on the radio -- and I just happened to be actually listening to the radio -- I wouldn't turn them off, but I can't say that they'd make me rush out to buy the album right away.

Ultimately, it all makes for We Are The Same being an incredibly appropriate album title -- they really are the same band they've always been. Avoid it if you're not a fan, and if you're currently undergoing your Hip phase, then by all means go and grab a copy (not that you needed me to tell you that). I can't see them winning the Polaris on the strength of the effort, but somehow, I don't think they'll mind all that much.