The Tragically Hip - In Between Evolution

The first few seconds of In Between Evolution offer a summation in miniature of both why The Tragically Hip are so great and why mainstream success has eluded them, at least in the United States. A distorted guitar chimes out a road-ready riff, soon joined by a taut rhythm section. Then lead singer Gordon Downie shouts out "Here's a glue guy, a performance God," in a pinched howl that sounds like it's ready to veer off-key at any second. That combination of arena rock and indie sensibility is exactly what fans have come to expect from the band; the approach isn't all that different from Pearl Jam's more recent work, except that Downie's lyrics have always been, well, weirder and more literate than the hits that took Pearl Jam to the top of the charts. Read More