Gordon Downie

Coke Machine Glow

Fans of Canada's Tragically Hip have grown accustomed to frontman Gordon Downie's flights of beatnik whimsy, but even they might find a full album's worth of his stream-of-consciousness rambling to be a dicey venture. The bizarre spoken-word "Starpainters" that opens Coke Machine Glow reinforces that fear, but by the time Downie sings "'What the hell is this?'/You said, 'It's art, just fuckin' mirror it'" at the outset of the gorgeous second track, "Vancouver Divorce," he's got ya. If the Hip's last outing, 2000's Music @ Work, seemed... Read More

short on memorable tunes, lay the blame here, because tracks like "Chancellor," "Canada Geese" and "Lofty Pines" boast some of the finest melodies -- and metaphors -- Downie's ever come up with. The production -- all spooky guitars, piano and a bare-essentials drum sound somewhere between martial and lounge jazz -- is just as compelling; this isn't an album you rock out to -- it's an album you reach for on a long night drive. With all due respect to the Cowboy Junkies, Coke Machine Glow may well be the most hauntingly beautiful album to come out of the Great White North since Neil Young's Harvest.

RICHARD SKANSE
(July 9, 2001)

CD Track List

Track List 1 Track List 2 Track List 3

Coke Machine Glow (2001)
1. Starpainters
2. Vancouver Divorce
3. Sf Song
4. Trick Rider
5. Canada Geese
6. Chancellor
7. The Never-ending Present
8. Nothing But Heartache In Your Social Life
9. Blackflies
10. Lofty Pines
11. Boy Bruised By Butterfly Chase
12. Mystery
13. Elaborate
14. Yer Possesed
15. Every Irrelevance
16. Insomniacs Of The World, Good Night

Track lists are from a 3rd party source.
Items below can and will differ.