It’s a dance or a song or a tree, the way the sky looked or the way the sun and snow felt that particular day. Over the sounds of dueling keyboards and a guitar strumming, he goes through the unspoken beats of a relationship on “Thinking About Us.” He channels another distant character into Lake Ontario in “The Lake.” Throughout Introduce Yerself, he flashes through these moments from his life not with the mathematical diligence of an autobiography, but instead through those moments and scenes that burn into our memories. He sends a tribute to his mates in the Tragically Hip in “Love Over Money,” recalling nights where, “we played to no one, and no one plus one.” The conversations with his brother on “You Me And The B’s” that’s superficially set around the Boston Bruins - oh, to have been a fly on their wall after the Joe Thornton trade - that inevitably get around to the greater and deeper troubles of life - “conversations serious as night,” as Downie calls them. Within its stripped-down setting and conversational pieces, it’s so immediate and real. It’s the sound of a man who’s free of all inhibitions yet is still graceful enough to be thoughtful and poetic that makes this such an engaging album. It’s the way the piano frames his words, and the way he relays this story of this nickname being passed down to its recipient. ![]() But in those songs, like “You Are The Bird,” that intimacy is still so strong. I can’t speak for the origin of all these songs, or their intended subjects. ![]() But in doing that, he’s created a sketch of his own life that feels warm and confessional in a way I’m not sure I’ve heard before. They’re goodbyes and laughs and memories that needed to be painted and preserved for his own purposes. Reportedly, many of the songs are first takes that Downie put to tape earlier in 2017, and they’re intended to specific figures in his life. The sound is so engaging and so immediate. ![]() With just the sparse backing of acoustic guitars, minimal drums and some pianos here and there, Gord Downie took the ticking time he had left in this world to write and record the songs that now live on as Introduce Yerself, a record that sees the Tragically Hip leader running through the stolen moments and memories of life and recasting them as love letters to friends and family. It’s hard not to get lost in the world this album creates. Gord Downie turns his swan song, Introduce Yerself, into a series of love letters
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