Introduce Yerself

Did You Know?

• Downie and Kevin Drew won Songwriter of the Year for "A Natural", "Introduce Yerself" and "The North".
• The album was completed in Downie's final months after his glioblastoma diagnosis.

Background

Because his health was uncertain, most tracks were kept as first takes. They cut 17 songs that year, then paused for the Man Machine Poem Tour and Secret Path. In 2017, the pair recorded ten more songs Downie had written in the meantime.

Critical reception

Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail described the album as more direct and personal than Downie's typically oblique songwriting with The Tragically Hip, comparing its kind-hearted sentimentality to Neil Young's Prairie Wind rather than the leave-taking albums of David Bowie or Leonard Cohen. Calum Slingerland of Exclaim! compared the instrumentation to Downie's previous album Secret Path and stated that the album finds Downie fully himself; the publication ranked it #10 on their Top 20 Pop & Rock Albums of 2017. Ben Rayner of the Toronto Star noted that the album cannot be separated from the tragic circumstances of its creation, and that Downie opened himself up more than ever before, naming specific people in songs like "Nancy", "Ricky Please" and "My First Girlfriend".