In homage to Nick Hornby and my homeland

One of my favorite books, and I suppose, movies, is Nick Hornby's High Fidelity (you might remember the film, starring the always adorable and sympathetic John Cusack). The characters in that book, who worked in a wonderfully neglected and empty record shop called Championship Vinyl, were constantly making lists: Top 5 albums of all times, top 5 Side 1 Track 1's of all time, top 5 albums made by transgendered people on heroin who ended up attempting suicide but failing and now make a living selling decently made Japanese cars, etc... Well, in homage to him, here is my own top 5 list, but with a little twist. I grew up on CanCon before it went to pot (yet again, Fuck. You. Arcade Fire.) So here it is, the best Canadian rock albums from the 90's.

5 The Tragically Hip - Road Apples
Canada's band. It comes out rockin your face off with Little Bones, one of the greatest straight up rock tracks of all time, let alone in Canadian history. To be honest, that and Cordelia are the only absolutely essential tracks on the album, and there's other albums I prefer that didn't make this list (Big Wreck? Zuckerbaby? Sloan? They all deserve a seat at the table). But I included Road Apples because if I didn't have at least one Hip album, my citizenship would probably be revoked, and besides, who doesn't love lyrics like "Well we're the last of the big-time penetrators/Playing dead to fuck the undertaker?"

4 Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight
Nobody in Canada was as cranky as Matthew Good. Here was a guy who ripped on every other band, politicians, celebrities, and his own band mates. MGB blew up in the wake of their follow up to this album, and Matty Good has gone on to release some underrated but seriously morose solo albums. Still, this remains his crowning achievement, and it has a lot to do with the guitar work of Dave Gehn, who was a bit of a mix between Tom Morello electronic fuckery and classic rock noodling. This album would have been great for the opening 30 seconds alone, which has a group of chearleaders chanting 'K-I-C-K-A-S-S, that's the way we spell success.' The singles were as good and commercial as MGB ever got, especially Hello Time Bomb. Load Me Up is a lost classic. Personal fave: Jenni's Song, which starts off with the most epic riff of MGB's career, before evolving into a gorgeous shimmering guitar riff and massive chorus. I can't think of a weak song here, and it makes me wish MG wasn't such a prick: maybe this band would still be together if he'd managed to get hooked on heroin or valium or some other sedative.

3 Finger Eleven - The Greyest of Blue Skies
When I first heard this, I honestly thought this was about as angry as music got. Before I knew of death metal, black metal, Scandinavian Church-Burning metal, or any word that ended with the word -core, I couldn't imagine anything heavier. Listen to that weird guitar effect that opens the album on First Time, and picture yourself as a 15 year old who had never heard anything heavier than No Doubt. Yeah, that's how I felt. It's second song is called Drag You Down, which is honestly the worst song Finger Eleven ever put out. But I have fond memories of listening to the middle of this album over and over. For the Ocean, Broken Words and Suffocate is like the best punch to the back of the skull you have ever received. I heart Finger Eleven. A lot. And they were never as pissed off, dissonant, catchy, vulnerable and just down right awesome as on TGOBS. Oh, and forgive the Depeche Mode cover. It's actually not as bad as you'd think.


2 I Mother Earth - Scenery and Fish
The second and last album they released with Edwin as their singer. After this, they abandoned the funky bluesy alt-rock they had perfected, and with their new singer (who I never liked and thus can't remember his name), went for a more 'modern rock' sound. That is to say, non-descript, bland and boring. But this album...FUCKING. AWESOME. I'm sure everyone remembers One More Astronaut, in the way that you remember any other song that was huge, but hasn't stood the test of time (according to general consensus. That song still rocks). But besides the great singles (such as Raspberry and Another Sunday), there were some great hidden gems. People like to fellate Stone Temple Pilots for writing the perfect driving song in Interstate Love Song, but my lead foot gets activated by Used to be Alright, a song about 'getting high for seven days, down in New Orleans.' Every song has a sing-along chorus, and there's some amazing instrumental jams, which puts to rest the notion that the grunge era lacked musicianship. See the jazzy bits in Songburst and Delirium. This was combining latin percussion rhythms with some major Stevie Ray Vaughan/Hendrix fetishes, and it worked suprisingly well. This is an album that will without doubt be forgotten by time, and it's too bad. For some nice boys from Toronto (we won't hold that against them), they rocked like soul brothers from deepest Africa. By the way, that's Alex Lifeson of Rush playing the geetar on Like A Girl. How's that for Canadian rock at it's finest?



1 Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
The first album I ever bought, and yes, it was on tape, way back in the ancient year of 1996 AD. To be honest, it's really not as mind blowing as I thought it was back then, and it sounds a bit dated. You can literally hear the mid-90s in the mopey trudge of Car Crash, and non-sensical but still somehow depressing lyrics of Hello Oscar. Still, Clumsy remains one of the best written songs of the decade, and 4am is a touching ballad about family that stands up. Carnival and Big Dumb rocket were fan faves back in the day, and there's good reason: they're experimental and catchy in a way that could never work these days. But the piece de resistance then and now remains Superman's Dead. It is to this day one of 3 songs you can be sure will be played at any Our Lady Peace concert (the others being Starseed and (ugh) Life). OLP went one to release some great material after Clumsy, especially the Ray Kurzweil-inspired futuristic rock of Spiritual Machines, but they've lost the plot since the departure of guitarist Mike Turner. His signature is all over Clumsy, and I can't help but have the feeling that years from now, his original touch on the 6 string will be rediscovered and honored.

Well, that's it. The top 5 Can-Con rock albums of the 90s. I'm sure I don't have a big enough reader base to inspire any debate, but if anybody has any thoughts or albums they'd like to include, I'd love to hear from you.