Rahul Sharma (Editor)

Reconstruction Site

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Released
  
August 26, 2003

Label
  
Epitaph

Artist
  
The Weakerthans

Producer
  
Ian Blurton

Length
  
40:46

Reconstruction Site (2003)
  
Reunion Tour (2007)

Release date
  
26 August 2003

Recorded
  
January – March 2003 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Genres
  
Punk rock, Indie rock, Folk music, Folk punk

Nominations
  
Juno Award for Alternative Album of the Year

Similar
  
The Weakerthans albums, Punk rock albums

The weakerthans manifest


Reconstruction Site is a 2003 album by The Weakerthans. A song cycle about grief, regret, loss and eventual hope, the album is thematically framed by three tracks, "(Manifest)", "(Hospital Vespers)" and "(Past-Due)", which set three different sonnets following a terminally ill hospital patient into the aftermath of his death to the same melody.

Contents

Other songs examine the album's themes from different angles: "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" is written from the perspective of a depressed person's cat, "One Great City!" is about Samson's love–hate relationship with his hometown of Winnipeg, and "Our Retired Explorer" imagines a dinner date between philosopher Michel Foucault and a hopelessly nostalgic member of Ernest Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica.

Guest musicians on the album include Sarah Harmer and Christine Fellows. The album's cover art was designed by Canadian artist and fellow Winnipegger Marcel Dzama.

The song "One Great City!" serves as the theme song to the Canadian television comedy-drama series Less Than Kind.

In 2013, the album made Ballast's list of top 50 Canadian albums of all time.

Track listing

All songs by The Weakerthans and all lyrics by John K. Samson.

  1. "(Manifest)" – 1:45
  2. "The Reasons" – 2:50
  3. "Reconstruction Site" – 2:45
  4. "Psalm for the Elks Lodge Last Call" – 2:45
  5. "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" – 3:49
  6. "Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)" – 2:23
  7. "Time's Arrow" – 2:53
  8. "(Hospital Vespers)" – 1:41
  9. "Uncorrected Proofs" – 2:42
  10. "A New Name for Everything" – 4:04
  11. "One Great City!" – 2:55
  12. "Benediction" – 3:28
  13. "The Prescience of Dawn" – 4:37
  14. "(Past-Due)" – 2:10

Songs

1(Manifest)1:45
2The Reasons2:51
3Reconstruction Site2:45

References

Reconstruction Site Wikipedia
(Text) CC BY-SA