Reconstruction Site

{{Infobox album

| name = Reconstruction Site

| type = studio

| artist = The Weakerthans

| cover = The Weakerthans - Reconstruction Site cover.jpg

| alt =

| released = August 26, 2003

| recorded = January – March 2003
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

| venue =

| studio =

| genre = Indie rock, post-punk

| length = 40:46

| label = Epitaph

| producer = Ian Blurton

| prev_title = Left and Leaving

| prev_year = 2000

| next_title = Reunion Tour

| next_year = 2007

}}

{{Album ratings

|rev1 = Allmusic

|rev1score = {{Rating|4|5}}[{{AllMusic|class=album|id=r650889/review|pure_url=yes}} Allmusic review]

|rev2 = Sun Media

|rev2score = (favorable){{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20120714100012/http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/Artists/W/Weakerthans/AlbumReviews/2003/08/22/772143.html Sun Media review]}}

}}

Reconstruction Site is the third studio album by The Weakerthans, released on August 26, 2003. 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.

Other songs examine the album's themes from different angles: "Plea from a Cat Named Virtute"Some sources give the title as "Virtue" rather than "Virtute". The title is correctly spelled "Virtute" and pronounced "Vir-too-tay". 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.Bergman, Andrew J. [https://web.archive.org/web/20130218024828/http://ballastmag.com/2013/02/the-50-greatest-canadian-albums-of-all-time/ "The 50 Greatest Canadian Albums of All Time"], "Ballast", Feb 13, 2013 accessed Feb 14, 2013.

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

  1. "Our Retired Explorer (Dines with Michel Foucault in Paris, 1961)" – 2:23
  2. "Time's Arrow" – 2:53
  3. "(Hospital Vespers)" – 1:41
  4. "Uncorrected Proofs" – 2:42
  5. "A New Name for Everything" – 4:04
  6. "One Great City!" – 2:55
  7. "Benediction" – 3:28
  8. "The Prescience of Dawn" – 4:37
  9. "(Past-Due)" – 2:10

References