This review covers the rock track The Tragically Hip – Ahead By a Century.
This track was released in 1996 on the album Trouble at the Henhouse.
The track starts off with guitars and some percussion work. After that, the vocals take the track into the first verse. The guitars then pick things up a bit.
From there, the vocals take the track into the first round in the main chorus. This is capped off with a light instrumental section.
After that, the vocals take the track into the next verse. Some backup vocals do join the track. The rest of the drum kit finally joins the track. There are brief appearances of the lead guitar. The vocals then take the track into the main chorus. The vocals extend the main chorus with the backup vocals seemingly meandering around in the background. Another instrumental section then comes in and then the track just ends.
A problem I have with this track is that it is so low energy. Considering the lyrics are supposed to be uplifting, the other elements in the track end up being relatively lifeless in comparison.
In addition to this, the lyrics are a bit on the skimpy side. While I do appreciate some instrumental sections, it’s like some of that is used to fill in time because the lyrics are so short. The main chorus is stretched and stretched and stretched as if to say that the lyrics ran out and additional time is being filled.
The backup vocals part way through one of the main chorus’ sounds odd. It just slowly mimics the lyrics completely out of sync with everything. As a result, it just seems out of place.
Overall, this track is just so low energy and bland, it’s hard to really think of this one as anything other than mediocre. If it weren’t for the excessively light lead guitars that make a brief appearance towards the end of the track, I would have even gone so far as to call it a flop. The backup vocals get out of sync with the rest of the track and the lyrics are stretched way too far. So, a barely passable track as far as I’m concerned.
Score
5/10
Drew Wilson on Twitter: @icecube85 and Facebook.
