Paul's List of the greatest Canadian Albums.
Recently, I was asked to contribute a list of the top 10 Canadian Albums of all time. People involved in the canadian Music Industry across the country have been asked to contribute for a book called 'The Top 100 Canadian Albums'
It's so tough... First of all I'm ruling out compilation albums... Going only with single records that define themselves... It's difficult because a lot of artists have careers that outweigh any single album achievement that they made. Leonard Cohen. Oscar Peterson, The Whiteley Brothers (and Sloths). The Guess Who. B.T.O. Sarah McLachlan. Ian & Sylvia Tyson. Gordon Lightfoot. Stan Rogers, Daniel Lanois, The Tragically Hip... This is a long list... Not to mention up and comers and personal faves like Corb Lund, The Weakerthans, etc...
Also... Not to downplay the financially incredible careers of Celine Dion, Anne Murray, Alanis Morisette and a few others, but I just don't see them as having advanced the state of humanity.
Yeah... There's no Rush on this list. No Loverboy. No Triumph. No Max Webster. No Nickelback. Too many artists have put out records that have held Canadian music back... Taken away our dignity.
10. Nomeansno - Wrong, 1989 - absolute pinnacle for prog punk. Victoria trio takes the possibilities of Jazz upbringings, punk energy, and twisted Canadian sensibilities into this perfect album.
9. Joni Mitchell - Blue, 1971 - stark testimonial... The great songwriter at her most honest and potent.
8. Propagandhi - How to Clean Everything, 1994 - everything that SNFU ever did built up to this... New school punk rock takes undergrad Sociology
7. The Band - The Band, 1969 - one of the blueprints for everything in outlaw country and rock to follow.
6. New Pornographers - Mass Romantic, 2000 - pop ambassadors of Vancouver... I still think that Superconductor's 'Bastardsong' is one of Canada's great musical moments... But all of that vision is reigned in four years later on this masterwork.
5. The Inbreds - Kombinator, 1994 - Slice of pop perfection
4. Joel Plaskett - Truthfully Truthfully, 2004 - Thrush Hermit's main writer delivers an album of anthems on his third album... If Down at the Khybers 'light of the moon' and 'true patriot love' had been on here I think the album would be #1.
3. Constantines - Shine a Light, 2003 - Nothing in the current era comes close to this. This album is the reason that the world looked to Canada and discovered The Arcade Fire. The Arcade Fire may be driving the bus but the Cons built the engine.
2. Sloan - Twice Removed, 1994 - second album jitters? No... Just perfect pop
1. Neil Young - After The Gold Rush, 1970... Sorry Harvest fans but I have to go with his first moment of perfection... Some of his greatest songs. 6 of his greatest songs on one record. We could pick 3 or 4 NY albums for this list... But this is the most beautiful and least trivialized album.
other albums I wanted to put on this list...
SNFU - …and no one else wanted to play, 1984
Arcade Fire - Funeral, 2005
King Apparatus - s/t, 1991
Furnaceface - Just Buy It, 1991
Frenetics - These Mistakes took Years of Practice, 2001
Thrush Hermit - Clayton Park, 1998
The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site, 2003
Superconductor - Bastardsong, 1996
The High Dials - A New Devotion, 2003
Corb Lund - Hair in My Eyes, 2005
Teenage Head - s/t, 1979
The Leather Uppers - O.K. Don't Say Hi, 1994
Old Reliable - The Gradual Moment, 2000
Alun Piggins - Awaken the Snakes, 2003
Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Dim the Lights, Chill the Ham, 1991
Bedouin Soundclash - Sounding a Mosaic - 2004
The Grievous Angels - Waiting for the Cage - 1996
The Brothers Cosmoline - Songs of Work and Freedom, 2001
Change of Heart - Soapbox, 1990?
The Corndogs - Love is All, 1995
The Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions, 1988
Willie P. Bennett - Blackie and the Rodeo King, 1979
Stan Rogers - Fogarty's Cove, 1977
Statues - New People Make Us Nervous, 2006
Forgotten Rebels - In Love With the System, 1981
The Rheostatics, Whale Music, 1991
Peter Elkas - Party of One, 2004
it also should go without saying that many of the artists in the top ten have
several amazing albums... just because I picked Truthfully Truthfully doesn't
mean that I don't fully love 'Down At The Khyber'... me picking 'After the Gold
Rush' is because I always have to take the road less travelled... don't dismiss
'Harvest', 'Tonight's The Night', 'Comes a Time', even 'On the Beach', 'Zuma'
and 'Rust Never Sleeps' and more... and then there's The Band... but you can't
dismiss the overall importance of defining a genre of music... dozens of Canadian
bands are on the road this very minute hoping to capture the energy and honesty
of The Band at their most creative... whether they know it or not.