Whether it's The Hip singing about dead hockey players, the Rheos talking about Saskatchewan plains or Daniel Lanois singing French folk songs, listening to their music puts the blurry Canadian identity into a bit clearer of a focus. If a nation's art is a reflection of it's culture, then looking at Chart's Top 50 Canadian Albums And Songs Of All Time reveals much:
- We're a proudly patriotic culture, but also one that's just as content to display that patriotism with subdued pride, as opposed to grandiose bombast.
- We celebrate being different. Much of our identity is based on proving we can do things that nobody else is doing at the time.
- The music we like is moody, introspective and sprinkled liberally with sad, thoughtful tales.
- And finally, stories that make us think of home get us every time.
It's those stories, plus a record collector's obsessive zeal for giving everything numeric values, that prompted us to conduct this poll. This is the second time we've done such a thing - the first time was in 1996 and was highlighted by victories for Sloan's Twice Removed for best album and The Demics' "New York City" for best song. As you'll soon see, the landscape has changed some since then.
Chart went to great lengths to determine the best Canadian albums and songs of all time. We sent ballots out to over 1,400 Canadian music industry folk ranging from band members to writers to retailers to vice-presidents, interns and everyone else inbetween, asking them what their favourite albums and songs were. Our intern army then spent about a month tabulating the results which now sit before you.
Although a few of the results surprised even us, we can safely look up and down these lists and feel confident that everything on them has touched many people in a special, intimate way that make them incredible music recordings.
If you've never heard some of these records before, do yourself a favour and make sure you do.
Chief Electoral Officer,
Aaron Brophy
TOP 100 CANADIAN ALBUMS OF ALL TIME
- Sloan - Twice Removed (DGC/MCA; 1994)
- Neil Young - Harvest (Reprise; 1972)
- Joni Mitchell - Blue (Reprise; 1971)
- The Tragically Hip - Up To Here (MCA; 1989)
- Rheostatics - Whale Music (Sire; 1992)
- The Tragically Hip - Fully Completely (MCA; 1993)
- Neil Young - After the Gold Rush (Reprise; 1970)
- The Band - Music From Big Pink (Capitol; 1968)
- Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions (RCA/BMG; 1988)
- Lowest Of The Low - Shakespeare My Butt (Yes Boy/A&M; 1991)
- Sarah McLachlan - Fumbling Towards Ecstasy (Nettwerk; 1993)
- Neil Young - Rust Never Sleeps (Reprise; 1979)
- k.d. lang - Ingenue (Sire/Warner; 1992)
- Neil Young - Tonight's The Night (Reprise; 1975)
- Rush - Moving Pictures (Anthem; 1981)
- Rheostatics - Melville (Green Sprouts; 1991)
- Slow - Against the Glass (Zulu; 1985)
- Sloan - Smeared (DGC/MCA; 1992)
- Leonard Cohen - Im Your Man (Columbia/Sony; 1988)
- Nomeansno - Wrong (Wrong Records; 1989)
- Teenage Head - Frantic City (Attic; 1980)
- The Band - The Band (Capitol; 1969)
- Neil Young with Crazy Horse - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere (Reprise; 1969)
- Sarah McLachlan - Solace (Nettwerk; 1991)
- Mary Margaret O'Hara - Miss America (Virgin; 1988)
- Sons Of Freedom - Sons Of Freedom (Slash/Warner Bros.; 1988)
- Blue Rodeo - Outskirts (Risque Disque/WEA; 1987)
- Doughboys - Whatever (MTL/Pipeline; 1987)
- Daniel Lanois - Acadie (Warner Bros.; 1989)
- The Inbreds - Kombinator (PF/Warner Canada; 1995)
- Hayden - Everything I Long For (Hardwood/Sonic Unyon; 1995)
- The Pursuit Of Happiness - Love Junk (Chrysalis; 1988)
- The Guess Who - American Woman (RCA; 1970)
- Blue Rodeo - Five Days in July (Warner; 1994)
- Eric's Trip - Love Tara (Sub Pop; 1993)
- Skinny Puppy - Bites (Nettwerk; 1985)
- The Tragically Hip - Day For Night (MCA; 1994)
- Nomeansno - Sex Mad (Cargo; 1985)
- Spirit Of The West - Save This House (Warner Canada; 1990)
- 54-40 - 54-40 (Warner Bros.; 1986)
- Change Of Heart - Smile (Cargo; 1992)
- Art Bergmann - Sexual Roulette (Duke Street; 1979)
- Rush - 2112 (Anthem; 1976)
- Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark (Elektra; 1983)
- Leonard Cohen - Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia; 1967)
- Teenage Head - Teenage Head (Epic; 1980)
- The Grapes Of Wrath - Now and Again (EMI Canada; 1989)
- Simply Saucer - Cyborgs Revisited (Mole/Fistpuppet; 1990)
- The Tragically Hip - Road Apples (MCA; 1991)
- 13 Engines - Perpetual Motion Machine (EMI Canada; 1993)
- Nils - Nils
- Our Lady Peace - Naveed
- Daniel Lanois - For the Beauty of Wynona
- Jane Siberry - The Walking
- Max Webster - High Class in Borrowed Shoes
- SNFU - No One Else Wanted to Play
- Change of Heart - Soapbox
- Sarah McLachlan - Touch
- Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
- King Cobb Steelie - King Cobb Steelie
- Nils - Sell Out Your Young
- D.O.A. - War on 45
- Max Webster - Max Webster
- Shadowy Men on a Shadowy Planet - Savvy Show Stoppers
- Blue Rodeo - Diamond Mine
- Alanis Morissette - Jagged Little Pill
- Circle C - Circle C
- Stompin' Tom Connors - Bud the Spud
- Leonard Cohen - Songs of Love and Hate
- Forgotten Rebels - Surfin' on Heroin
- SIANspheric - Somnium
- Ugly Ducklings - Somewhere Outside
- Bryan Adams - Reckless
- Jerry Jerry & the Sons of Rhythm Orchestra - The Battle Hymn of the Apartment
- Jane Siberry - Bound by the Beauty
- Neil Young - Live Rust
- Art Bergmann - What Fresh Hell Is This
- Bruce Cockburn - Humans
- D.O.A. - Something Better
- Hardship Post - Somebody Spoke
- k.d. lang - Absolute Torch and Twang
- John Oswald - Plunderphonics
- D.O.A. - Hardcore '81
- Dayglo Abortions - Feed Us a Foetus
- Rush - Farewell to Kings
- Skinny Puppy - Rabies
- Streetheart - Meanwhile Back in Paris
- Bob Wiseman - In Her Dream
- Bachman Turner Overdrive - Not Fragile
- Art Bergmann - Crawl With Me
- Forgotten Rebels - In Love With the System
- Skinny Puppy - Remission
- Zumpano - Look What the Rookie Did
- Art Bergmann - Art Bergmann
- Headstones - Pictures of Health
- Pointed Sticks - Perfect Youth
- Leonard Cohen - The Future
- Pluto - Cool Way to Feel
- Skinny Puppy - Cleanse and Fold
- Neil Young - Zuma