Album A Day: Our Lady Peace – Gravity

Artist: Our Lady Peace
Album: Gravity
Release Date: June 18, 2002

Fact: “Innocent” is one of my favorite songs ever written, and has been since I first heard it on the late, great Y100 many years ago. Simply put, Our Lady Peace hit a home run with Gravity. Listening to it now after having heard music from recent modern rock acts like Daughtry, Shinedown, and *gulp* Hinder, it suddenly becomes far clearer just how much influence Gravity had. Our Lady Peace got slammed when this album came out for taking a turn for the mainstream. And seven years later, this album could just as easily have come out last week. It fits in with the current aesthetic of radio rock perfectly, for better or for worse. I’m sure there were other bands and albums that got mainstream rock to its current state, but Gravity is still a good benchmark for what it was and what it eventually became, as small as the shift might have been.

While I’m here, can we talk about how many hit bands have come from Canada in the last 30 years or so? Just off the top of my head I’ve got:

• Our Lady Peace
• Nickelback
• Three Days Grace
• Breaking Benjamin
• Alanis Morrissette
• The Guess Who
• Barenaked Ladies

And that’s what I can just run off without research. I’m sure there are dozens I’m forgetting. Who knew that those folks up north could make such good music (well, most of the time)?

Our Lady Peace – Innocent [iTunes] (YSI)

==TJ==