In famed music critic Robert Christgau’s latest newsletter, Xgau Sez, he admits to loving Canada but having less-than-fond thoughts about some of the most popular Canadian bands, including The Tragically Hip.
“Worse than Kansas, my sole review reported, and it doesn’t get much worse than that,” Christgau said of the beloved Canadian band, comparing them to the hammy “Carry On Wayward Sun” and “Dust in the Wind” classic rockers.
The Hip response came about because of a newsletter question by “Jim from Toronto,” who asks Christgau if he has any thoughts about how Canadian music rarely ever leaves its regional appeal. “Overall, you seem unimpressed with the Canadian music scene,” Jim said.
Christgau responded that while he’s loved plenty of Canadian artists such as Neil Young, Joni Mitchell (but only in her earliest days), and gave A’s to Canuck rappers Shad, K’naan, Backxwash, and “the great” Buck 65, but noted the CBC requires its music division at both the national and local levels play Canadian music “with disproportionate airplay.”
In his conclusion, Christgau assumes that Jim’s question comes from his hurt feelings due to Christgau’s disdain towards The Hip.
“And I would wonder if, as I suspect, your hurt feelings go back to my disdain for the neither tragic nor hip Tragically Hip, the Great Mythic Unjustly Ignored Canadian Rock Band,” he said.
In 2000, when The Tragically Hip released their seventh album, Music @ Work, Christgau gave it a “C” rating in a brief review.
“Fifteen years on, that northern nation’s favorite rock band—led by deep thinker Gordon Downie, who ungratefully notes, “If I do believe in a country, it’s the country of me”—has progressed from a passable “blues-based” literacy (imbued, of course, with the natural sense of rhythm for which Canadians are renowned) to candidly ornate and obscure art-rock,” he wrote with hints of sarcasm aimed at the band’s late frontman.
