I recently rediscovered one of my favorite cds from high school at the bottom of a box the other day. It was Great Big Sea’s Turn. I freaking love it and still have all the songs memorized.
I checked 'em out online and they have a bunch more records out there now. Anybody know which ones are really good or not so good? Or, better yet, since none of them are likely to be bad, can you rate them in order of awesomeness? I will soon remedy my lack of GBS records. Thanks, kids.
I’m not a Canuck, but I love GBS. If you’re only going to be one, I’d recommend either “Sea of No Cares” or “Something Beautiful” first, and the one that you didn’t get first, get second. Then “Fortune’s Favour.” “Road Rage” also has some good stuff.
I haven’t heard their latest. A friend of mine wasn’t extremely impressed, but I’m an uncritical GBS fan.
I’ve been a fan for a long time now, but for me, their best albums are **Up **and Play. But there are great songs on all of them.
As Kolga said, Road Rage is a good one, because it’s a live sample of stuff off a bunch of their CDs.
None! Buy you some Ashley MacIsaac or Enter the Haggis instead!
Agreed.
Up and Play followed by Turn are my favourites. Their newest one, Safe Upon The Shore is also pretty good.
Very cool. Thanks for the tips!
If you like Great Big Sea, can I recommend Spirit of the West to you? Awesome Canadian band, especially the songs “Home For a Rest” and “So Political”. Classic Canadian stuff, may be hard to find but YouTube should give you an idea.
Another Canadian band in a similar vein (i.e. folk/traditional) that you might like is Tanglefoot. I challenge anybody to listen to their “Vimy” and not get misty-eyed; or try to keep time to “Awkward Donald” without failing, but laughing nonetheless.
And don’t forget the Irish Descendants from Newfoundland. Not quite as raucous as Great Big Sea, but (IMO) just as much fun.
“Home for a Rest” isn’t hard to find - just go to any college party in Ontario and it’s a near guarantee it will be played by the end of the night! At least, IME.
Not the same style, but this week I’ve been rocking out to The Tea Party. Damn we make good music up here!
And sung along to. Loudly. (At least if post-secondary students are like they were when I was in uni…)
You’ll have to excuse me…
Iunno, GBS is overplayed and overhyped for this canucklehead’s ears. Play some Rush, play some Bryan Adams…maybe a little Bif Naked if you’re feeling Indy. If you like that folky sound, go for some Stompin’ Tom or old Stan Rogers albums. But Great Big Sea are like listening to a bad cliche over and over again for me.
Somewhat critical GBS fan here – I like Safe Upon the Shore just okay overall, though a couple of the songs I really like. Fortune’s Favor grew on me.
Everything else? Pretty much awesome.
I love Great Big Sea too, but find it hard to think in terms of their albums, because I bought most of their stuff on Napster a few tracks at a time and made mix CDs out of them, instead of getting entire albums at a time. So here are my favorite Great Big Sea songs, and if you want albums you can figure out which albums they’re on:
Gideon Brown
Barque on the harbour
French perfume
Process man
Cod Liver Oil
Clearest Indication
Ferryland Sealer
Old Brown’s daughter
Scolding wife
I’m a rover
Wave over wave
“I’d pay the devil to take her,
and thank him for his pain,
I swear to God, I’ll hang myself,
if I ever get married again!”
And another vote for these two. I own every GBS album, and the ones that are played on a regular basis are Turn, Up and Play. There are songs I love off the other albums, too, but in terms of albums I listen to the whole way through, those are the three.
Just so you know whether our tastes mesh, I much prefer the traditional and traditional-sounding GBS songs to the more contemporary ones.
Also, if you ever get a chance, seeing them live is well worth it.
Absolutely. I’ve seen 'em twice, and bot times it was a raucous great time. There’s a large GBS fanbase here in Denver, for some reason.
We like The Hard and the Easy–all traditional stuff.
BTW, not a Canuck here, one of the more rare American fans. It’s all my mom’s fault, she gave me the CDs. And they are a freakin’ BLAST live, it’s well worth it! C’mon guys, come back to Boise, please please please please please…
I prefer their traditional stuff; off the last couple of albums, there’s lots of stuff I like but I think I would like better done more traditionally. That being said, I understand wanting to do something different.