The final chapter in Gordon Downie’s musical story is about to be published.
On Oct. 16 — nearly three years to the day after the Tragically Hip frontman’s death — his latest and reportedly last solo album Away Is Mine will be released. According to the singer’s Bandcamp page, the 20-track set was recorded at the band’s Bathouse Studios in July 2017, mere months before Downie lost his battle with brain cancer.
The album’s track list is divided between acoustic and electric versions of 10 new songs, and features musical contributions from friends and collaborators Josh Finlayson, Nyles Spencer, Travis Good of The Sadies, Downie’s son Lou and Dave Koster. Downie’s previous solo release was 2017’s posthumous Introduce Yerself, written and recorded in the wake of his medical diagnosis.
Listen to the first two songs from the disc — the slowly shuffling electro ballad Hotel Worth and the noisily rumbling slow-burn roots-rocker Useless Nights — and read the lyrics below.
Hotel Worth
Yer walking me to the door
of what was it again?
Oh the Hotel Worth?
Or to the Hotel Merit?
A hotel with meaning
But I just don’t understand
I just live and do
Congratulations to me or to you
I’m a man
re-receive achieve then lose
A hotel worth of meaning
I just don’t understand
You drink so you can talk
without thinking about or thinking about
worrying about what you say
I don’t drink when I sing
I don’t drink
when I sing
you can’t hear me
when I drink
• • •
Useless Nights
We’re at cross seas
yea you and me
it’s impractical to dream
in the wind from the west
and the current moving east
I’m as happy as
My least happy kid
I’m not happy about it, nor humiliated about it
We are together on this
Please be good to me
Yea save me from the useless nights
Sleeping in dreary places
I’m bored with being down
just listen, don’t guess – please – alright
What am I for? Hey now?
to be just understood
jumping shadow to shadow, never eye to eye
in my neighbourhood
Everybody needs it
Needs to be understood
Whether we’re jumping shadows
between the secret moon it’s trying
and it’s really, really, really, really good
Ah please be good to me
Yea please save me from the useless nights
