View from the Cheap Seats is an extension of the newsroom, which is frequently a site of heated debate on topics ranging from the extremely serious to the utterly ridiculous. This web edition features the views of print edition columnists Thom Barker (Wednesday) and Calvin Daniels (Friday), as well as web exclusive content by Devin Wilger (Thursday).
This week: Greatest Canadian Album?
Give me back my broken night...
These “greatest ever” topics always give me fits between what I like best and trying to come up with some kind of objective evaluation. How do you balance popularity, musicianship, songwriting, industry and/or social impact and other criteria with the subjective elements of taste?
Certainly, legendary artists such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell and Gordon Lightfoot and bands such as The Guess Who, The Band, Rush and the Tragically Hip ought to be in the conversation.
I also have some sentimental favourites. I would feel like I was doing a disservice to the topic if I didn’t at least mention Stan Rogers, who died way too young. Fogarty’s Cove is a classic album that echoes through time.
My two favourite Canadian artists are Bruce Cockburn and Ferron. Both have had some great offerings, but I don’t know that either has had a single album that is so strong from start to finish that it deserves “greatest of all time” honours even in my own estimation much less on an objective scale.
If I were to pick one of theirs it would be Cockburn’s Humans (1980) or Ferron’s Driver (1994). If we were picking songs, this would be easier. “Cactus” by Ferron and “Pacing the Cage” by Cockburn are as perfect as any songs ever written by anyone, anywhere at any time.
Ultimately, I am going with Leonard Cohen. Cohen, of course, is a legend in his own right and a number of his records (The Songs of Leonard Cohen, I’m Your Man, Songs of Love and Hate) have shown up on every best Canadian album list ever compiled.
My favourite, and an objectively great album that gets overlooked, is Cohen’s The Future. Its core is dark, moody and melancholy, which I love. Songs such as the title track, “Democracy” and “Anthem” are dystopian masterpieces of lyric and sound. Others, such as “Closing Time” pick up the mood and pace just when needed, but still retain the classic acerbic Cohen wit.
The album, one of his later efforts, came out in 1992 and his smoky growl has never been better. Plus, the band he put together for it is stellar, the musicianship beyond reproach. From the compelling opening organ riff and drum roll of “The Future” to the soothing piano and strings of “Tacoma Trailer” there is not a single note or word out of place on this album.
-Thom Barker
It’s an Action Pact choice
Choosing Sloan’s Action Pact is something that not everyone is going to agree with. It’s definitely something Sloan itself wouldn’t agree with – the band’s Jay Ferguson ranked it the last of the band’s albums in an interview with Vice – but I’m not going to be swayed by the words of the guy who wrote the songs themselves. I love this album, almost every song is a winner – “Ready for You” isn’t great – but even the weaker track just emphasizes how great the good ones are.
My approach was to take the album I’d pick when I want to listen to a Canadian album, and I figured it had to be a Sloan album from the outset since I can’t think of a more Canadian band. They’ve been successful mostly in Canada, they reference the country in their lyrics, they work as a collaborative group with four songwriters getting the chance to write something for each album, which is an inherently Canadian approach.
But the most important thing is the songs are good. They also get better with each listen. I gravitated towards Action Pact because of “Nothing Lasts Forever Anymore,” one of my favorite songs, Canadian or otherwise. But listening to the album, it’s top to bottom good, and I found myself questioning whether or not my previous favorite song was actually my favorite song on the album. It’s nearly 40 minutes of nearly perfect power pop, and while I had my doubts about whether or not it would be the album I chose, after listening to it again, I can’t imagine choosing anything else.
-Devin Wilger
Too many choices
Sometimes when we sit around the editorial department tossing out ideas for this space, we come up with ideas that seem perfectly simple, until you sit down to actually do it.
That is much the case with picking the best Canadian album.
To begin with I found myself having to come up with some self-imposed criteria.
For example, I recognized a desire to look beyond genre. What might be a great blues recording might not make it to the best overall discussion, although King Biscuit Boy and Jeff Healey are close.
Then there was the thought to simply look at sales. How often have I been told I should love soccer because millions watching automatically make it great? So it would stand that sales make an album great.
I looked at double-diamond, more than two-million in domestic sales, Canadian recordings.
Shania Twain happens to have three; The Woman In Me, Come On Over and Up!, but no one admits to listening to her.
Celine Dion has six diamond albums, but again few admit to loving her music.
Then I considered who are widely viewed as influential artists, Buffy Sainte Marie, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen coming to mind. Each has great recordings, and they are worthy of consideration, but their music might not be widely accessible to make them ‘best-ever’.
So, after a whack of ‘net searches, and much consideration here we go for a top-five (with honourable mentions to Rush, the Tragically Hip, Great Big Sea and Hank Snow).
At number five Alanis Morisette, Jagged Little Pill, 1995. A bit of a mood album, it really is good.
American Woman by the Guess Who comes in at number four. It was a Canadian breakthrough album in terms of the US from what I look at as the most iconic of Canadian bands.
Gordon Lightfoot’s The Way I Feel (1967) with the iconic ‘Railroad Trilogy’ slots in at three, although I could have used his Sundown album here too.
Harvest (1972) by Neil Young sits at number two. This is pure gold and could have been the top pick.
But that honour goes to Bryan Adams with Reckless (1984). This is about as good as rock gets, accessible, memorable, fun and number one worthy.
-Calvin Daniels
