| Man Machine Poem | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | June 17, 2016 | |||
| Studio | The Bathouse, Bath,Loyalist, Ontario | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock | |||
| Length | 41:25 | |||
| Label | Universal | |||
| Producer | ||||
| The Tragically Hip chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Man Machine Poem | ||||
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Man Machine Poem is the thirteenth and final studio album by Canadian rock bandthe Tragically Hip, released on June 17, 2016 onUniversal Music Canada.[1] It is their last album to be released before the death of lead singerGord Downie, as well as their last to be composed of new material. Produced byKevin Drew andDave Hamelin,[1] the album is named after a track which appeared on the band's previous albumNow for Plan A.
The album's first single, "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind", was released in April.[1]
Prior to the album's release, the band announced that Gord Downie was diagnosed withbrain cancer in December 2015[2] and that the bandwould tour Canada in summer 2016 to support the album.[2] The band and critics have cautioned, however, against interpreting the album in light of Downie's health, as it was written and recorded before his diagnosis.[3] Although some media coverage has referred to it as the band's final album, the band reportedly worked on some new studio material after its release, and also have more than one album's worth of previously unreleased material that could be issued in the future as rarities compilations.[4]
The album had been slated for release in March 2016 under the titleDougie Stardust, as a play onDavid Bowie's classic albumThe Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars; it had even begun appearing on music retail sites as a pre-order under that title.[5] The band delayed the album's release after Downie suffered his second cancer-related seizure in February, and opted to retitle it in light of Bowie's death in January.[5]
Writing inExclaim!, Stuart Henderson described the album as "a darkly illuminated, late-career curveball likely to please and confound in equal measure. Rarely since their mid-1990s heyday has the multi-platinum-selling band sounded so intent on crafting something different."[6] In theEdmonton Journal, Fish Griwkowsky described the album as "a deep-felt, summer highway album that briefly escapes the weight of the doom we all share — not alone, but together in the dark".[7]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Exclaim! | 8/10[6] |
The album garnered a longlist nomination for the2017 Polaris Music Prize,[8] and won theJuno Award for Rock Album of the Year at theJuno Awards of 2017.
All tracks are written by The Tragically Hip.[9]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Man" | 5:17 |
| 2. | "In a World Possessed by the Human Mind" | 3:56 |
| 3. | "What Blue" | 2:46 |
| 4. | "In Sarnia" | 4:38 |
| 5. | "Here, in the Dark" | 4:03 |
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 6. | "Great Soul" | 3:44 |
| 7. | "Tired as Fuck" | 3:45 |
| 8. | "Hot Mic" | 3:55 |
| 9. | "Ocean Next" | 3:56 |
| 10. | "Machine" | 5:29 |
| Total length: | 41:25 | |
Personnel taken fromMan Machine Poem liner notes.[9]
The Tragically Hip
Additional musicians
Technical personnel
Weekly charts[edit]
| Year-end charts[edit]
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