Up to Here is the debut studio album by Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip, released in September 1989. It is one of the band's most successful albums, achieving diamond status in Canada for sales of over a million copies, earning the band a Juno Award for Most Promising Artist, and also introduced fan-favourite songs such as "Blow at High Dough", "New Orleans Is Sinking", and "Boots or Hearts". The album reached No. 13 on RPM's Canadian Albums Chart, and both "Blow at High Dough" and "New Orleans is Sinking" reached No. 1 on the RPM Canadian Content singles charts.
An expanded anniversary reissue of the album was released in November 2024, including a remastered version of the band's 1990 MuchMusic concert special Live at the Misty Moon and previously unreleased tracks from the era. The reissue was preceded by lead single "Get Back Again", one of the most famous rarities in the band's entire discography as they had occasionally performed it live but had never previously released a studio recording.
A third Tragically Hip album? Absolutely not necessary. It's fine and I recognise New Orleans is Sinking from the rock radio station I used to listen to time to time as a teenager.
Otherwise, I think we've gotten enough Tragically Hip albums!
My personal rating: 3/5
My rating relative to the list: 4/5
Should this have been included on the original list? No.
Up To Here is the debut album of The Tragically Hip. It is not as good as what is to follow (Fully Completely, Road Apples and Phantom Power), but still a fine piece of music on it's own. It has all the elements (energy, drive and good guitar licks) that can be found on the albums that will follow.
This is my album choice. This band/album is the soundtrack to Canadian summers. Bonfires/ camping trips/ fishing at the lake... This was such a formative album for me in my teenage years as I was shaping my musical tastes. I mentioned in another Tragically Hip album review that it was my cousin, who lived in a more urban setting that introduced me to The Hip in the first place. Once introduced to them, I went back to my rural town and bought a few of their records. I've been a fan ever since. What I love about them is that they change their sound slightly for every album they made. This album is blues rock, but other albums lean harder to the country rock/art rock sound. Gord was always experimenting and weaving beautiful poetry into music.
Lyrics such as (from the song 38 years old):
Same pattern on the table, same clock on the wall;
Been one seat empty 18 years now;
Freezing slow time away from the world;
He's 38 years old, never kissed a girl
Such vibrant imagery to that chorus. The song is loosely based off of the jailbreak that occured from Millhaven Penitentiary near Kingston, ON. The song is sung from the perspective of a younger brother who's older brother was locked up after murdering the man who raped his sister. Just the thought of how time stands still for his family as he serves out his sentence...
When given the opportunity to select an album for others to listen to, I felt compelled to represent Canada in some way, simply because the original 1,001 list leaned hard on obscure British Britpop/ Madchester/ electronica/ shoegaze... I needed to represent something that meant so much to me. So crack a beer, sit out under the stars around a bonfire, grab a guitar and a few good friends, and enjoy life.
Favorite songs: Opiated, Boots or Hearts, Trickle Down, When the Weight Comes Down, I'll Believe in You (Or I'll Be Leaving You Tonight), Blow at High Dough, 38 Years Old, New Orleans is Sinking, She Didn't Know, Everytime You Go, Another Midnight
Least favorite songs: none
5/5
This album feels like a more natural choice than a previous user album from this band (Phantom Power) which I still have to listen to so I might be wrong...
..in any case, OtH contains New Orleans Is Sinking: one of their best songs. Overall, this is a solid album (had to get onto it again and it got better after a few listens). Still had expected to see Fully Completely, a classic album that could have been included in the 1001 list.
Yeah I like this. Good rock - I really enjoyed the opening track Blow at High Dough. While I don’t think I’d put three albums on this list from The Tragically Hip, I’m happy to have become acquainted with the group.
So yeah, these guys were doing stuff like this at the same sort of time the Americans were starting to feel their way around grunge.
I mean, it's OK - but only OK as far as I can see.
O man, with a Canadian band like this, who needs a second ("hey Siri, play Glass Tiger, Platinum Blonde, Chilliwack, Bryan Adams, the Tea Party, Nomeansno, Blue Rodeo, Spirit of the West, Alannah Myles, the Spoons, the Pumps, Sloan, Thrush Hermit, Plumtree, Doug & the Slugs, Martha & the Muffins, and Men Without Hats :)")
The user who picked this also chose If I Should Fall From Grace With God as their fave from the original list, and that makes strange sense to me.
Like, the Pogues and the Hip aren't exactly similar musically, but... either one would be great by a fireplace on a cool day.
Gord Sinclair. I looked up the bassist's name, since he's such a highlight of "New Orleans" among other songs. Add him to the other renowned Canadian Gords like bandmate Downie, Lightfoot and Pinsent.
I’m married to a Canadian so have absorbed the music of the Hip via osmosis. This is the first time I have ever listen to one of their albums but I knew most of the songs!
This Tragically Hip album wasn’t as good as Fully Completely but it still was a pretty good album. For a Canadian band they have a good sound of bluesy rock with an occasional country element, maybe Kingston is the Atlanta of Canada. Overall it’s another good album by them with a good range on their sound while still that late 80s early 90s flannel rock sound. 6.8/10
Fine blues/folk rock, but this the third user submission and no better than the others. There is strength in the style and vocal delivery, but few songs really elevate themselves and it ends up as a pretty average release.
This Canadian favorite has made the fan list once or twice before - and I never remember exactly what they are about. Which turns out to be pretty straight ahead rock and roll in my book, smart lyrics without being pretentious, the singing nothing life-changing but fit to purpose. Some of it gets into a little monotonous riffing around stock progressions, some of it runs a bit long, but enjoyable overall and I'd happily listen to it any time.
Wait is the version on Apple Music ripped from vinyl? You hear the needle drop at the start of “Boots or Hearts” and if it’s a sample/sound effect, it’s really well done.
That’s all I got, really…the music is fine. This sort of heartland rock isn’t really for me, but it had some very enjoyable moments.
Rock suave sin ningún altibajo ni sorpresa reseñable. Se deja escuchar. Parece que bien elaborado y con voz aceptable. Género muy explotado y en el que en este disco no tiene ningún motivo para brillar
A decent guitar-driven LP with a bit more grit than the other albums from this band that have ended up on here. After listening to the 1001 + the Rolling Stone 500 and a few other lists I’m going to be honest in that I’m running out of novel takes and things are starting to blur together a bit
Solid, if unspectacular indie. Some of the songs remind me of Snow Patrol, a bit. A couple of them have really incongruous lyrics. I liked it, but didn't love it.
I praised The Tragically Hip in our very first user album, but I didn't find "Up To Here" to be as strong. The Hip are Canadian icons that belong on the list, but maybe they hadn't quite refined their sound until "Fully Completely." "Up To Here" was a little to country for my taste at times, and Gord Downie seemed to still be feeling out his vocal style.
It’s nice to see the Tragically Hip on here but I’m not feeling it. I think it’s the curse of the jam band - great live, not so great when recorded.
Still, it’s nice.
Once more we get to 'enjoy' Canada's less interesting answer to REM. Up To Here is the Hip's debut effort and it's probably marginally more enjoyable than the other two user-submitted albums of theirs we've had, but not to any discernable level. I enjoyed the first track, and Everytime You Go is decent, but it's another 2/5 and I don't get how they're so big.
Oh, thank God, I was worried The Tragically Hip always copie- I mean, was influenced by R.E.M, but luckily, they instead were big fans of the Fabulous Thunderbirds, one of the worst "famous" bands of the 80s. What joy! Bleh, this album was almost fine enough, but as it just kept going I was just more and more annoyed, to the point where I'd call this actively bad. Is the Tragically Hip gonna be the Costello of the user list? I really hope not, or at the very least that third (and final?) album better be fantastic, to make it all even. Sorry, OP, I'm sure this band means a lot to you, but this is far from for me.