Downie 3.8.1

The Tragically Hip come from a long line of bands that began as arena-rock-in-my-basement garage outfits, and actually soldiered on to make music worthy of achieving that aspiration. While it's true that 2004's In Between Evolution and the lackluster We Are the Same were missteps because they were squarely aimed at the ever elusive mainstream, Now for Plan A, the Hip's 13th long-player, produced by Gavin Brown, moves them back to their square, toward the immediacy of their earlier records. Its 11 tracks deliver a varied, mostly uptempo, solid sonic ride that combines big-budget rock & roll production with more basic elements of urgency, impulsiveness, and humor.

Canada’s iconic group the Tragically Hip have returned with Saskadelphia, a surprise album made up of unreleased material from 1990. It’s the band’s first album since vocalist Gord Downie died of brain cancer in 2017, though a posthumous Downie solo LP called Away Is Mine emerged last fall.