Reconstruction Site by The Weakerthans

Reconstruction Site, the Weakerthans' third studio album, came out on Epitaph in 2003: a song cycle about grief, regret and loss that claws its way, eventually, toward hope. The record is framed by three sonnets, "(Manifest)", "(Hospital Vespers)" and "(Past-Due)", all sung to the same melody, that follow a dying hospital patient to the end and beyond it.

In between, the songs come at those themes from odd angles. "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute" is sung by the cat of someone sinking into depression, "One Great City!" wrestles with John K. Samson's love-hate bond with his hometown of Winnipeg, and "Our Retired Explorer" sets up dinner between Michel Foucault and a hopelessly wistful veteran of Ernest Shackleton's Antarctic expedition. The playing is warm and plainspoken, folk-punk with the edges sanded down, with Sarah Harmer and Christine Fellows sitting in and fellow Winnipegger Marcel Dzama designing the cover. It drew a Juno nomination for Alternative Album of the Year, and Ballast later counted it among the 50 best Canadian albums.

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