A presentation of The Tragically Hip Podcast Series

Hosted by jD and Greg LeGros

If Up to Here was the sound of a band kicking the barroom doors open, Road Apples is what happens when they walk in knowing the room already belongs to them.

Released in February 1991, this record lands right in the middle of a cultural earthquake — Nevermind, Ten, The Black Album, Out of Time, Loveless, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Rock music is shedding its hairspray, sharpening its teeth, and looking for something that feels real again.

And here come The Tragically Hip — louder, darker, more confident, and somehow more mysterious than ever.

In this episode of Fully & Completely: Redux, jD and Greg LeGros dig into Road Apples as the moment where the band perfects their bar-band bravado — and then quietly starts planning their escape from it. Produced once again by Don Smith, recorded largely live off the floor, this album sounds like five guys in a room who trust each other completely… and aren’t afraid to push.

We talk about:

• Why 1991 might be the most important year in modern music
• Road Apples as the band’s first true leap — not just forward, but outward
• The brilliance of Little Bones as an all-time album opener
• Gord Downie’s emerging lyrical mythos — cab drivers, King Lear, Macbeth, and prison-yard stares
• How Cordelia and The Luxury reveal a darker, more literary Hip
• Why Long Time Running becomes one of the band’s first truly communal songs
• The quiet devastation of Fiddler’s Green
• And how Last of the Unplucked Gems gently closes the door on one era… and opens another

This is the album where the confidence hardens, the writing deepens, and the band stops sounding like anyone else. The last gasp of their blues-rock skin — and the first clear signal that something bigger is coming.

School’s still in session.

And things are starting to get interesting.