''Go Figure'' is the fifth studio album by Canadian

folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and American folk music. It arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music re ...

group

Spirit of the West Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which m ...

, released on June 25, 1991 by

Warner Music Canada Warner Music Canada is the Canadian division of Warner Music Group. The label previously operated as WEA Music of Canada, Ltd. (French: ''WEA Musique du Canada, Ltée''), often shortened to WEA Canada, the Canadian subsidiary of WEA Internationa ...

. It was the band's first

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

album, and their first with drummer

Vince Ditrich Vince Richard Ditrich (born April 4, 1963) is a Canadian rock musician, best known as the drummer and manager of the band Spirit of the West. Ditrich is also the author of three novels featuring fictional musician Tony Vicar. Early life Ditrich ...

. The album garnered the band new airplay on

rock music Rock is a Music genre, genre of popular music that originated in the United States as "rock and roll" in the late 1940s and early 1950s, developing into a range of styles from the mid-1960s, primarily in the United States and the United Kingdo ...

radio stations, although it was controversial among the band's traditional

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

fan base. The album includes a rock rendition of "

Political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...

", one of the band's best known songs. During the concert tour to support this album, fans in one city actually presented the band with a petition requesting that they play the ''old'' version of that song. Despite earning a gold record, the album was only a modest success on the charts, however, peaking at #45 on ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

s Top 100 albums chart. A recurring theme throughout the album is disaffection with the government of then-

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

Brian Mulroney Martin Brian Mulroney (March 20, 1939 – February 29, 2024) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, and politician who served as the 18th prime minister of Canada from 1984 to 1993. Born in the eastern Quebec city of Baie-Comeau, Mulroney studi ...

. "D for Democracy", "Pulling Lame" and "Far Too Canadian" are all anti-Mulroney songs, reflecting the widespread popular opposition to Mulroney among the Canadian public which led to the 1992 defeat of the

Charlottetown Accord The Charlottetown Accord () was a package of proposed amendments to the Constitution of Canada, proposed by the Canada, Canadian federal and provincial governments in 1992. It was submitted to a public referendums in Canada, referendum on October ...

and the Progressive Conservative decimation in the

1993 Canadian federal election The 1993 Canadian federal election was held on October 25, 1993, to elect members to the House of Commons of Canada, House of Commons of the 35th Canadian Parliament, 35th Parliament of Canada. Considered to be a major political realignment, it ...

. However, "D for Democracy" is not about Mulroney alone, as the song also touches on other contemporaneous stories of political malfeasance, such as the drug controversy surrounding

Washington, DC Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and Federal district of the United States, federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from ...

mayor

Marion Barry Marion Shepilov Barry (born Marion Barry Jr.; March 6, 1936 – November 23, 2014) was an American politician who served as mayor of the District of Columbia from 1979 to 1991 and 1995 to 1999. A Democratic Party (United States), Democrat, Barr ...

Track listing

All songs by John Mann and

Geoffrey Kelly Geoffrey Kelly (born October 23, 1956, in Dumfries, Scotland) is a Canadian rock musician. He played guitars, flutes and bodhrán for the folk rock Folk rock is a fusion genre of rock music with heavy influences from pop, English and Amer ...

. #"D for Democracy (Scour the House)" – 4:37 #"Big Head" – 4:04 #"Spot the Difference" – 4:17 #"Pulling Lame" – 5:04 #"Let's Make a Mystery" – 5:01 #"Goodbye Grace" – 5:57 #"Just Another Day" – 4:17 #"Polaroid" – 4:47 #"

" – 4:34 #"Ship Named Frank" – 4:28 #"Far Too Canadian" – 6:33 "Political" was also released as a CD single, with the

B-side The A-side and B-side are the two sides of phonograph record, vinyl records and Compact cassette, cassettes, and the terms have often been printed on the labels of two-sided music recordings. The A-side of a Single (music), single usually ...

s "Sad But True" and "Again and Again and Again".

References

{{Authority control 1991 albums Spirit of the West albums Albums produced by Joe Chiccarelli