Away Is Mine is the seventh solo studio album by Gord Downie. It was released posthumously on October 16, 2020,[1] and recorded over four days in July 2017, three months before he died.[2] It is a double album, with one disc containing electric versions of the songs, and the other acoustic.[3]

Away Is Mine
Studio album by
ReleasedOctober 16, 2020 (2020-10-16)
RecordedJuly 17–21, 2017
StudioThe Bathouse, Bath, Ontario
Length52:14
LabelArts & Crafts
ProducerNyles Spencer
Gord Downie chronology
Introduce Yerself
(2017)
Away Is Mine
(2020)
Lustre Parfait
(2023)

The album was produced by Nyles Spencer.[4] It sold well in Canada, earning a #3 Billboard Canada chart debut with the #1 spot on the Top Albums, Vinyl, and Digital Albums charts.[5]

Regarding the release, The Spill Magazine's John Graham laments, "Away Is Mine serves as a reminder that Downie, our dear friend gone far too soon, gave everything he could musically, before the inevitability of his death."[6]

"There really wasn’t a plan to make a record," Downie’s co-writer Josh Finlayson said. "The whole thing was that I knew this was a great way to spend time with Gord, listening to music, talking about music, talking about things that we’d always talked about. And this just evolved pretty organically."[7]

“This won’t be his last release, but these are the final ten songs Gord sang before he passed away. The last time he ever sang into a mic," Finlayson and brother Patrick Downie wrote in a joint statement. “That’s pretty special to us."[8]

Track listing edit

All tracks written by Gord Downie and Josh Finlayson.

Disc one
No.TitleLength
1."Hotel Worth"3:55
2."Useless Nights"2:57
3."I Am Lost"2:27
4."About Blank"2:38
5."River Don't Care"2:19
6."The Least Impossible"2:34
7."Traffic Is Magic"2:26
8."Away Is Mine"2:23
9."No Solace"2:18
10."Untitled"3:42
Total length:27:39
Disc two
No.TitleLength
1."Hotel Worth" (Acoustic)2:57
2."Useless Nights" (Acoustic)2:29
3."I Am Lost" (Acoustic)2:12
4."About Blank" (Acoustic)2:06
5."River Don't Care" (Acoustic)2:13
6."The Least Impossible" (Acoustic)2:10
7."Traffic Is Magic" (Acoustic)2:27
8."Away Is Mine" (Acoustic)2:24
9."No Solace" (Acoustic)1:58
10."Untitled" (Acoustic)3:32
Total length:24:28

References edit

  1. ^ Atad, Corey (September 21, 2020). "Gord Downie's Final Solo Album 'Away Is Mine' Announced: Listen To The First Two Singles". ET Canada. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020.
  2. ^ Lars Brandle (September 21, 2020). "The Tragically Hip's Gord Downie Set for Posthumous Album Release 'Away Is Mine'". Billboard.
  3. ^ Calum Slingerland, "The Story of Gord Downie's Final Songs: When the Artist Becomes the Art". Exclaim!, October 15, 2020.
  4. ^ Jesse Kinos-Goodin, "Listen to 2 songs from Gord Downie's final solo recording, Away is Mine". CBC Music, September 21, 2020.
  5. ^ "Gord Downie: The Least Impossible". 29 October 2020.
  6. ^ Graham, John. "Spill Magazine". The Spill Magazine. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
  7. ^ Atad, Corey (September 21, 2020). "Gord Downie's Final Solo Album 'Away Is Mine' Announced: Listen To The First Two Singles". ET Canada. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020.
  8. ^ Atad, Corey (September 21, 2020). "Gord Downie's Final Solo Album 'Away Is Mine' Announced: Listen To The First Two Singles". ET Canada. Archived from the original on September 21, 2020.