Downie, Gord & Bob Rock: Lustre Parfait (w/20-pg lyrics booklet) LP

More than a decade in the making, Lustre Parfait is the long-mythologized collaboration of rock n' roll giants. Gord Downie, the iconic frontman of The Tragically Hip, and legendary producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Bon Jovi, Motley Crüe, Michael Bublé) combine on a 14-song double-album with the newfangled energy of two restless talents in lockstep. Recorded between 2009 and 2016, Rock's Grammy Award-winning flair lights up Downie's peerless lyricism and incendiary heart. In contrast to the raw intimacy of Downie's posthumous solo releases – 2017's letter-to-loved-ones Introduce Yerself, and 2020's ghostly goodbye Away Is Mine – Lustre Parfait is unabashedly infectious, a gift of unbridled expression from one of Canada's most cherished voices, belting out pristine lyrics from in-the-pocket of a gleaming rock band, relentless, and charged with the unifying forces of poetry and power. Inspired by their brotherhood under the muse of rock n' roll, their work together began when Bob produced The Tragically Hip's World Container (2006) and We Are The Same (2009). It was after the second outing that Gord asked if Bob had music he could write to, leading to Lustre Parfait: the ninth album to bear Downie's name outside the Hip, and the first to bear Rock's.