Up To Here (Deluxe)

The Tragically Hip’s self-titled 1987 debut EP positioned them as one of Canada’s most promising rock bands, putting a raucous and irreverent spin on the post-R.E.M. sounds of the day. But on their first proper full-length, Up to Here, we hear the hardening effects of countless hours spent on wintry roads in a cramped van with overflowing ashtrays, playing every dive in Southern Ontario. Caked in Stones-y grit and Crazy Horse crunch, “Blow at High Dough” and “New Orleans Is Sinking” became instant, eternal signatures for the band, highlighting both their dedication to classic-rock fundamentals and their eagerness to draw outside the lines: Onstage, the latter song’s prowling groove became a springboard for Gord Downie’s wild narrative freestyles, a defining feature of the band’s live sets for years to come. (A suitably rangy version anchors the band’s incendiary, mythmaking 1990 live set at Halifax’s Misty Moon, included in the 2024 deluxe edition of the album.) But as much as Up to Here showcases the rare band that could unite college kids and biker gangs in a beer-soaked frenzy, we also get the first signs of a more sensitive and poetic voice emerging from the bedlam. On the haunting acoustic ballad “38 Years Old,” Downie weaves a fictionalized account of an actual 1972 jailbreak near the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ontario, providing an early display of his preternatural talent for blurring history and mystery to profound emotional effect.