May 14, 2021
Universal
1xLP
The first release since the untimely passing of vocalist and lyricist Gord Downie, Saskadelphia is compiled mainly of tracks from the sessions for 1991’s Road Apples. The album finds the band in classic form as the blues-y rockers match up well to the clubs and dive bars the band were playing at nonstop at the time (this breakneck touring pace even inspired the albums’ title, with the band never knowing if they’ll be in Saskatoon or Philadelphia on any given night). What sets the Hip apart from the countless other bands slugging it out in bars and clubs night-after-night is the cryptic, evocative lyrics of Gord Downie who acted as a phantom hybrid of Bob Dylan, Neil Young and R.E.M’s Michael Stipe and pushed the bands subject matter into new territories, from biting religious satire (“Reformed Baptist Blues”) to a moving tribute to the victims of the École Polytechnique shooting (“Montreal”).
IYL: The Rolling Stones, R.E.M.,