Music @ Work (studio album) by The Tragically Hip

I struggle to get through this album. I've tried to make myself like it and I just can't. The title track is easily my favorite song. This is the first time The Hip started to experiment and it just doesn't work for me.

From jhuik 04/21/2017 21:55

I think they admitted that this was a misstep, underproduced and half-cooked in some spots. I thought they really started on their mature career with the follow up, iVL. There are those like 5thbeatle and others who think they lost their edge with this, but I thought they put out two or three quite good albums in their more mature, later material. ...Lake Fever & Stay, though....

From ghosttomost 05/21/2014 06:49

This was the Hip's strangest and maybe most underrated album. The band kept the polished production sound that first appeared with Phantom Power which turned away many older fans, and further alienated its fanbase on Music@Work with a complete rejection of the band's blues-rock roots. Instead, Gord Downie attempts to showcase his songwriting talents with some of the best selection of lyrical tunes to come out of Canada since Neil Young. Unfortunately, this album goes almost completely unnoticed having been rejected outright by the oldschool Tragically Hip fans and ignored by those who would never consider listening to the Hip based on their older material. Downie would go on to release his first solo album the next year as another attempt to focus more closely on his lyrical prowess, before returning with the Hip in 2002 with an even more alienating and misunderstood album, In Violet Light.

From junodog4 06/23/2012 18:45

The Hip sound tired. They were simply massive in Canada at this point, yet couldn't break into the States. My guess is they finally resigned themselves to the fact and began to rest on their laurels. It's still good music, but this is when the Hip started to serve leftovers.

Beginning of the end. IMO

From jhuik 01/03/2012 03:02

I would argue that this was the band's low point and the worst album in their catalogue, still to this date. And still, Stay and Lake Fever are both gorgeous, and the title track is always surprisingly great live.