Great Debate #1: Hourly Daily Vs Hi Fi Way

If you were stuck on a desert island for a year, which You Am I album would you take: 'Hourly Daily' or 'Hi Fi Way'? This eternal question is the first of our “Great Debate” series, which will run over six weeks this summer. Weigh in on the debate in the comments section below for your chance to win a $250 record store voucher of your choosing thanks to Hyundai’s Veloster. Words by MATT SHEA.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] It’s a debate that seems to calcify and become more entrenched with each passing year. Which is You Am I’s artistic high point: Hi Fi Way or Hourly, Daily?

Both records were released during the band’s mid-’90s golden streak, and there’s little denying the 29 tracks they encapsulate (30 if you include ‘Forget It Sister’, Hourly, Daily’s hidden cut) come together to form one of the strongest sets of Australian music in recent history. But things get complicated when you have to separate the two.

[Historical image is withheld pending rights review.] Perhaps it’s because – despite being released little more than a year apart – the records are so strikingly different. Hi Fi Way, the bristling backyard set, an unerring consistency defying the weeklong recording session that produced it; and Hourly, Daily, relying more on delicate songwriting and carefully groomed production, the conceptual nature of the record establishing the band’s fondness for representing their Australian roots.

The two albums couldn’t have been recorded under more different circumstances. Hi Fi Way came out in a seven-day fit of creativity in New York, straight after the band’s much publicised support slot on Soundgarden’s national tour of the US. The trio of Tim Rogers, Andy Kent and Rusty Hopkinson entered the studio unsure of their musical direction and many of the songs would end up having the lyrics written on the fly. ‘Jewels And Bullets’ was infamously signed, sealed and delivered in little more than 15 minutes on the last night of recording. You’d hardly know it, though: coming into it cold, Hi Fi Way is like a 14-slot shot of pure rock genius.

Hourly, Daily, on the other hand, was – strangely enough – the first album the band recorded in Australia. Being back at home seemed to allow You Am I time to settle into their craft, and Rogers produced a nostalgic, dawn-to-dusk set of stories that played like a commentary on Australian life. It makes Hourly, Daily arguably the more affecting of the two records, and certainly more of a conceptual work. But there’s also the idea that it stumbles during its second half. And then there’s the fact that the playlist changes slightly depending on whether you pick up the Australian or the international version of the album, with ‘Trike’ and ‘Opportunities’ subbing in for ‘Someone Else's Home’ and ‘Moon Shines On Trubble’ – a slight improvement in songwriting, perhaps, but then it seemed to mess with Rogers’ careful narrative.

So which is the stronger record?

Two of the most recent high profile discussions on such topics have the honours split. John O’Donnell, Craig Mathieson and Toby Creswell’s book The 100 Best Australian Albums, published in late 2010, lists Hi Fi Way at #8 and Hourly, Daily at #55. But triple j’s Hottest 100 Australian Albums Of All Time poll from last year had the tables turned, with Hourly, Daily’s position at #26 trumping Hi Fi Way on #35.

And what do other Australian artists think? Melbourne-based troubadour Ben Salter opts for Hi Fi Way. “Only because that was the album I got into You Am I through,” he says. “It actually prompted me to write my first and only ever fan letter asking if the band could please come and tour Townsville. And I got a handwritten reply from Tim a couple of months later. Of course, I was a fan for life after that,” Salter laughs.

“Hi Fi Way is the perfect mix of spikier punk and indie guitary stuff, but then with all of the ’60s and ’70s classic rock starting to seep through, and in a really odd combination. Stuff like having the Mellotron on ‘Minor Byrd’. And it was the first one to have Rusty drumming; that drumming style brings a certain ’60s style feel to it. I still really enjoy Hourly, Daily and know it back to front. But every song on Hi Fi Way I’m just absolutely in love with.”

Joe McKee, formerly of Snowman, leans the other way, pegging Hourly, Daily as the stronger listen. “I was introduced to Hourly, Daily at the age of about 13 or 14, and that was the most instantly accessible of the two. So, for nostalgic reasons, I would say Hourly, Daily. I know Tim Rogers isn’t so fond of it anymore, but I think it’s totally deserved of its success … For me it’s still just that little bit superior.”

Pete Kilroy of Hey Geronimo agrees. “For mine, the songs on Hourly, Daily are a lot better and he [Rogers] sings a lot better on it,” he says. “That sort of stuff matters to me. It just feels like they graduated and moved on to the next chapter… like the guy is a bit more in touch with his feelings, like he’s grown up a tiny bit.”

Both McKee and Kilroy concede, however, that Hourly, Daily suffers a second half slump in quality. “I think it’s a long album – unnecessarily long,” Mckee says, “and that’s probably one of the only flaws that I can pick at it.”

“It starts way too strong,” Kilroy adds. “That’s one thing about Hi Fi Way: it has little peaks and troughs. With Hourly, Daily, the first five songs are just ridiculously good, and then it goes on a steady decline – there’s no doubt about that.”

The next 'Great Debate' will take place next Friday (January 13). Winners announced soon.