BeatRoute Magazine [AB] print e-edition - [November 2017]

musicreviews
Gord Downie
Introduce Yerself
Arts & Crafts
For the larger part of his storied career with The
Tragically Hip, Gord Downie spent his time telling
stories belonging to other people. From “Wheat
Kings,” all the way to last year’s Secret Path, Downie
himself took a backseat to a cast of characters
steeped in Canadian lore.
Introduce Yerself, Downie’s posthumous 23-
song double album, serves as an introduction of
sorts to a Canadian legend that has kept much
of his life private. Instead of telling other people’s
stories, Downie is finally telling his own.
Downie’s best lyrics were always written to be
humanizing at the same time as myth-making. On
Introduce Yerself, he does the same thing to the
people in his own life, writing plaintively about
the people and places he cared most about.
Most of the songs here are about small moments
like on “Spoon” and “Bedtime,” both stories
about Downie marveling at his children. Or like on
“You Me and the B’s,” about his love of the Boston
Bruins that he shared with his brother. Every piece
of Introduce Yerself feels like it has been scaled
back to not seem self-indulgent. This is not Downie’s
sweeping goodbye opus, but instead a quiet
farewell to the people he cared about most.
In a press release accompanying the album,
Downie said that the words contained on the
album were written before any music was made.
“A lot of these I wrote the words in advance like
poems. I’d get one or two a day and then I’d have
to stop. Because that’s about all… the soul or
whatever, would give up. And then, so with music,
it becomes pretty easy.”
Indeed, the music here, produced mostly by
Downie and Broken Social Scene’s Kevin Drew,
takes a backseat to the lyrics, but it’s hardly a
complaint.
The album is much less poetic than much of
Downie’s past work, but it only serves to demystify
the singer. These are some of the most affecting
songs Downie ever put to tape, recorded swiftly
over two four-day sessions in January 2016 and
February 2017, with the finished album often
reflecting first takes.
Accompanied mostly by sparse piano, acoustic
guitar and drums, it never sounds like Downie is
searching for the right words. Instead, he opts for
an Sun Kil Moon-esque retelling of stories, fitting
awkward, matter-of-fact lyrics into beautiful vocal
melodies.
Much like Downie’s career, Introduce Yerself is a
varied listen, swinging from upbeat reminiscing to
mournful rumination over its runtime. Standout
track “Love Over Money” is a short song about
Downie’s bandmates in The Tragically Hip and
their rise from playing small gigs in Kingston, ON
to playing for the Queen of England. Elsewhere, “A
Better End” sonically picks up where 2016’s Secret
Path left off, powered by throbbing percussion
and spacious reverb.
Thematically, Downie continues his crusade for
“a Canada we should have never called Canada” on
“The North,” a devastating account of the ravages
of colonialism in the Arctic. It’s quintessential
Downie that even on his final album, he still
spends most of the time thinking about anyone
but himself. His final advice for the “boys in the
north,” and presumably listeners is to “turn our
faces to the sun and get whatever warmth there
is.” It’s hard to imagine leaving a legendary career
off on a better note than that.
• Jamie McNamara
illustration: Greg Doble
50 | NOVEMBER 2017 • BEATROUTE