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Trouble At The Henhouse

The Tragically Hip - Trouble At The Henhouse Audio CD

A fair review of the The Tragically Hip "Trouble At The Henhouse" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all The Tragically Hip reviews here, or go back to the The Tragically Hip tabs.

Band: The Tragically Hip
Title: Trouble At The Henhouse
Rating:

Release Date: 1999-07-20
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Gift Shop 2: Springtime in Vienna 3: Ahead by a Century 4: Don't Wake Daddy 5: Flamenco 6: 700 Ft. Ceiling 7: Butts Wigglin 8: Apartment Song 9: Coconut Cream 10: Let's Stay Engaged 11: Sherpa 12: Put It Off

Worth a Century of Listening!
Every song on this album is fantastic, and listening to the songs in a row together makes each one even better!. This is the Hip at their most competent and most assured.

The Hip Turn A Corner For Better And For Worse
Canadian through and through. Up until 1996, The Tragically Hip had been a cult (yet extremely successful) hard-rock band from Canada, seemingly played in every Canadian teen's-20s basement with wood paneled walls, shag carpet and a huge red maple leaf hung on the wall. As Canadian as maple syrup, mounties, beavers, Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray and Wayne Gretzky. Their music was called grungy, alternative and had a "cult" following. Lead singer Gord Downie was reknowned for his ad-lib, bizarre stage performances and the lyrics were some of the most complex, yet eerily strange compositions ever heard. Then 1996 happened and "Trouble At The Henhouse" arrived.

I consider this recording as the turning point for the band. Essentially, they grew up. Sure, the complex lyrics were still there but there was an "adult" acoustic sound that began to creep its way into their repetoire. The hard-driving guitars were mellowed in favour of a more kinder, inclusive sound that sought to bring in a wider audience. Exhibit A: The massive success of "Ahead By A Century", a song that crossed from AOR over to Contemporary Hit Radio. The result was a widening of their audience (something that mushroomed with their next CD "Phantom Power"). It was an acknowledgement that not only was the band getting older but their fan base was as well.

This is not to say that this CD was the beginning of the end of the band or that they "jumped the shark". It is one of those seminal recordings where you get the sense that, after years of doing the same type of sound, the creativity has been tweaked and the band has turned a corner that will result in change - good or bad. The acoustic wanderings on this CD are fitting for such a recording that has such an "earthy" feel to it. The sounds of lulls and high points in the music are typically dramatic for The Hip and they again work on this set. Every song is memorable for certain lyrics and a challenge to comprehend. The music is professional but not so polished as to make it redundant. This is a fine record and, with "Phantom Power", the peak of their commercial success - reward for years of "cult" Canadian fame.

Full agreement

The hip are one of the things that made growing up in rural Western New York really special. This is one of my favorite albums. The Canadian radio that filters in across Lake Erie introduced me to this truly great band.

A 4.5 star rating is unavailable...

The Hip are a tough listen. Since there is no medium between a 4 star and 5 star rating, I am giving this album the benefit of the doubt in order to set it apart from albums by others that are truly worthy of only a 4 star rating. They are not immediately accessible as the songs, the melodies and the riffs take a while to sink in. What is required by the listener approaching The Hip in general and this album in particular is an open mind and a committment to listen to the album more than once before making any sort of judgment.

With that said, the one song that is immediately accessible is "Ahead By a Century. " With its subtle lyrics and its equally subtle acoustic guitar it stands out as something you have surely never heard before.

Then there is a song like "Springtime in Vienna" which requires several listens and a trip to the library to check out a book called "A Nervous Splendor: Vienna, 1888-1889" by Frederic Morton to fully understand what Gordon Downie means when he repeats the refrain, "We'll live to survive our paradoxes. "

All in all, "Trouble at the Henhouse" is not "Day For Night" but then again, no Tragically Hip album really sounds like a copy of another.

Give "Henhouse" a chance.

read this review
I am a die hard fan, so I am not judging this album against other band's albums, because the worst Hip album is still better than anything else out there. "Trouble At the Henhouse" is by far the weakest album the Hip have ever produced. This album gets 2 stars from me because compared to "Road Apples", "Day For Night", "Fully Completely", and "Phantom Power" it is just not that good. Taking the big, epic sweep of "Day For Night" to the extreme is exactly why this album doesn't work. There is hardly any spunk on the album, each song going at a medium to slow (some painfully slow) pace. The songwriting is well below Gordon Downie's usually very high standards, and after the first three songs ("Giftshop", "Springtime In Vienna", and "Ahead By A Century" are all classic Hip) only occassional lines stand out (most notably the opening lines of "Don't Wake Daddy" - "sled dogs after dinner, close their eyes on the howlin' wastes, Kurt Cobain reincarnated, sighs and licks his face" is one of Gordon Downie's most inspired images ever). The first three songs start the album in promising fashion, but the album doesn't have a song that is interesting from start to finish after that. Again, as on several other Hip albums, the production is a little questionable. Several of these songs come to life on stage, but that doesn't matter to you if you're thinking about buying this CD. If you like the Hip and own most of their other albums than by all means get this one, there is definately enough to satisfy a fan of the band. If you are new to the band than you would be better off picking up any of the above mentioned albums. And by the way, they don't sound like R. E. M. at all.

You can see a complete list of all The Tragically Hip discography, or go back to the The Tragically Hip tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.