Day for Night (The Tragically Hip album)

Day for Night is the fourth studio album by the Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip. It is named for the film of the same name.

Day for Night
Studio album by
Released24 September 1994
Studio
GenreAlternative rock
Length59:26
LabelMCA
Producer
The Tragically Hip chronology
Fully Completely
(1992)
Day for Night
(1994)
Trouble at the Henhouse
(1996)
Singles from Day for Night
  1. "Grace, Too"
    Released: September 1994
  2. "Greasy Jungle"
    Released: November 1994
  3. "Nautical Disaster"
    Released: February 1995
  4. "So Hard Done By"
    Released: May 1995
  5. "Scared"
    Released: September 1995
  6. "Thugs"
    Released: 1996

Commercial performance

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The album was very successful in Canada, with domestic sales of 300,000 units within four days of its release,[1] while not seeing a U.S. release until February 14, 1995.[2] It was the band's first album to debut at #1 on the Canadian Albums Chart.[3] The album has been certified 6× platinum in Canada.[4] Promotional tours for the album included stints touring with The Rolling Stones and Page and Plant.[5] In the Netherlands, Day for Night peaked at #70.[6]

Saturday Night Live

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The band appeared on Saturday Night Live in 1995, thanks in large part to the finagling of fellow Canadian and Kingston-area resident Dan Aykroyd. A fan of the band, Aykroyd appeared on the show just to introduce them, despite John Goodman being the host of the episode. The band performed two songs from Day for Night, "Grace, Too" and "Nautical Disaster".[7]

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [8]
Rolling Stone(favourable)[9]

In Have Not Been the Same, the authors note that "the initial response was mixed" due to the "darkness" of the album and its stemming "from the unconscious.".[10] Although AllMusic.com's rating is a lukewarm 3 out of 5, the review calls the album's "signature lyrical mysteries... lush, but much more dark-spirited" than previous albums. "Day for Night stands on the minimalism of Downie's poignancy -- nothing is overproduced and the songs themselves are left alone to arrive on their own."[11] In Chart, Jason Schneider wrote that this was the album that made The Tragically Hip more than "just a rock 'n' roll band... miraculously, the vast distances they had been absorbing for the previous five years merged with the equally limitless vistas of Gord Downie's imagination via a Daniel Lanois-inspired sonic canvas. Day For Night got inside the Canadian psyche in a terrifying way that simple nationalistic tall tales never could. The songs remain gloriously impenetrable, but their landscapes feel like home."[12]

In ChartAttack's three Top 50 Canadian Albums of All Time polls, the album placed #37 in 1996, #13 in 2000 and #21 in 2005.

Track listing

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All songs were written by The Tragically Hip.

No.TitleLength
1."Grace, Too"5:34
2."Daredevil"3:46
3."Greasy Jungle"4:27
4."Yawning or Snarling"4:54
5."Fire in the Hole"3:16
6."So Hard Done By"3:29
7."Nautical Disaster"4:43
8."Thugs"4:43
9."Inevitability of Death"3:52
10."Scared"5:08
11."An Inch an Hour"3:21
12."Emergency"3:34
13."Titanic Terrarium"4:34
14."Impossibilium"4:05
Total length:59:26

Credits

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The Tragically Hip

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Additional personnel

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  • Greg Calbi – mastering
  • Jim Herrington – photography
  • Mark Howard – producer, engineer, mixing
  • Andrew McLachlan – design
  • Simon Andrew – drawing
  • Mark Vreeken – producer, engineer, mixing

References

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  1. ^ "A Breakthrough Year For Canadian Acts". Billboard. 24 December 1994. Retrieved June 8, 2015.
  2. ^ "Upcoming Releases" (PDF). CMJ New Music Report. 41 (413). Great Neck, NY, USA: Haber, Robert: 52. 6 February 1995. ISSN 0890-0795. Retrieved 9 July 2024. February 14...Tragically Hip Day For Night Atlantic
  3. ^ "Top Albums/CDs - Volume 60, No. 11, October 03 1994". RPM. Archived from the original on 2017-10-20. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  4. ^ "Gold Platinum Database: The Tragically Hip - Day For Night". Archived from the original on 2013-09-21. Retrieved 2011-12-03.
  5. ^ Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995, by Michael Barclay, Ian A. D. Jack, Jason Schneider
  6. ^ "The Tragically Hip - Day For Night". Dutch Charts (in Dutch). Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  7. ^ Usinger, Mike (July 17, 2016). "The Tragically Hip's most fabled failure made it Canada's greatest-ever band". The Georgia Straight. Retrieved 9 September 2020.
  8. ^ "Allmusic review".
  9. ^ "Rolling Stone review". Rolling Stone.[dead link]
  10. ^ Have Not Been the Same: The CanRock Renaissance 1985-1995 By Michael Barclay, Ian A. D. Jack, Jason Schneider
  11. ^ "Day for Night - the Tragically Hip | Songs, Reviews, Credits | AllMusic". AllMusic.
  12. ^ "Chart Attack - Best Magazine 2021". Archived from the original on March 1, 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)