Labour Day is a 1988 album by Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West

Spirit of the West are a Canadian folk rock band, who were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which made them one of Canada's most successful alternative rock acts in the 1990s.-Early years:The band began...

.

The album's best-known song is "Political

Political (song)

"Political" is song by Spirit of the West. One of the band's most famous songs, it originally appeared on the 1988 album Labour Day. The song was written by John Mann....

", which was the first song to gain widespread airplay for the band on campus radio

Campus radio

Campus radio is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively by students, or may include programmers from the wider community in which the radio station is based...

 and CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One

CBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...

. When the band evolved into an alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 group in the 1990s, their 1991 album Go Figure included a controversial revamp of that song.

It was the band's first album with Hugh McMillan

Hugh McMillan (musician)

Hugh McMillan is a Canadian folk/jazz/rock musician.McMillan is a member of the folk rock band Spirit of the West, and is a multi-instrumentalist who has played guitars, bass, banjo, trombone, mandolins, Chapman stick, piano, and keyboards on the band's albums...

. McMillan found the tour to support the album draining, and took a temporary hiatus from the band; he was replaced by Daniel Lapp

Daniel Lapp

Daniel Lapp is a Canadian folk musician.He was a touring member of the folk rock band Spirit of the West in 1988 and 1989, but never appeared on any of the band's albums. Lapp and Linda McRae replaced Hugh McMillan during MacMillan's hiatus from the band following the 1988 album Labour Day. Lapp...

 and Linda McRae

Linda McRae

Linda McRae is a Canadian rock and alternative country musician.-Career:McRae was a member of platinum folk rock band Spirit of the West from 1988 to 1996. A multi-instrumentalist playing accordion, guitar, bass, and banjo she also appeared as a guest musician on The Wonder Stuff's album Never...

. However, McMillan returned before the band's next album. Lapp left on McMillan's return, but McRae stayed with the band until 1996.

It was also the band's first album to reach the RPM

RPM (magazine)

RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,...

Top 100 albums chart, peaking at #64, and was a nominee for Best Roots & Traditional Album

Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year - Solo

The Juno Award for Roots & Traditional Album of the Year - Solo is presented annually at Canada's Juno Awards to honour the best album of the year in the roots and/or traditional music genres...

 at the Juno Awards of 1989

Juno Awards of 1989

The Juno Awards of 1989, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 12 March 1989 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. André-Philippe Gagnon was the host for the ceremonies, which were broadcast on CBC Television.Blue Rodeo won in three of its...

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Track listing

Lyrics and music are credited to various combinations of the band members: John Mann

John Mann (musician)

John F. Mann is a Canadian rock musician and actor.-Music:He is the lead vocalist for the folk rock band Spirit of the West...

, Geoffrey Kelly

Geoffrey Kelly

Geoffrey Kelly is a Canadian rock musician.He plays guitars, flutes and bodhran for the folk rock band Spirit of the West, for whom he is also the lead vocalist on some songs. He and John Mann are the band's primary songwriters.Kelly is also a full time member of The Paperboys, and released a solo...

 and Hugh McMillan. Arrangements are credited to the band. Former band member J. Knutson

J. Knutson

Jay Knutson is a Canadian folk singer-songwriter. He is normally credited with the initial J. rather than his full first name.Knutson was one of the founding members of Spirit of the West, and subsequently performed both as a solo artist and as a supporting musician for Connie Kaldor, Ferron,...

 also receives an arranging credit on "Drinking Man". As with all of the band's early folk

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

 albums, several songs are arranged around traditional Irish

Ireland

Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...

 and Scottish

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 reels

Reel (dance)

The reel is a folk dance type as well as the accompanying dance tune type. In Scottish country dancing, the reel is one of the four traditional dances, the others being the jig, the strathspey and the waltz, and is also the name of a dance figure ....

.

1. "Darkhouse" ( – 4:46 - Reel: "The Connaughtman's Rambles")
2. "Political
   Political (song)
   "Political" is song by Spirit of the West. One of the band's most famous songs, it originally appeared on the 1988 album Labour Day. The song was written by John Mann....
   
   " – 4:27
3. "Profiteers" – 3:03
4. "The Hounds that Wait Outside Your Door" – 5:20
5. "Runboy" ( – 4:10 - Reel: "The Banshee")
6. "Drinking Man" ( – 5:53 - Reel: "The Hunter's Purse")
7. "Expensive/Cinema of Pain" – 3:26
8. "Gottingen Street" – 4:11
9. "Take it From the Source" – 5:39