My mother's birthday came around right as I was flying back to Chicago to lease a car, drive it down to Atlanta, move into my new place, and buy a bunch of furniture. Instead of buying her a gift, I ended up borrowing money. It was not an especially proud moment. I paid her back a couple weeks later, the same day I bought her The Weakerthan's (Canada's finest) "Reconstruction Site" off Amazon as a small birthday present. Reconstruction Site, is one of my favorite albums and I'm very sure that if I had to take one CD to a desert island, that would be it. I studied abroad in England for six months during my junior year of undergrad. At some point during the packing process I realized that I couldn't bring everything I needed in two suitcases, so I decided to mail a large box of my belonging to my new address, knowing it would take many weeks for it to arrive. For some reason I decided to include all of my CDs in that box. A few hours before I left, it dawned on me that I wouldn't have any music for my trip unless I burned some CDs for my discman. I had borrowed a large chunk of my friend's music collection, but with only a bit of time before I had to leave for the airport, I would have to be selective in my choices. Worried about time and unsure how many CDs I'd be able to copy, Reconstruction Site was the first CD I burned.

My mother is politically conservative with little aversion to the fringe commentators that provide seemingly effortless and impossibly offensive filler between news cycles. We've had more than a few arguments about her support of Fox News and their endless parade of pundits that amplify the worst voices in our society. She is also open-minded and an avid music lover. This translates into interesting conversation, like when I was home for winter break and I stumbled across the video for DJ Kahled's "I'm so Hood" on TV. While we disagreed over the song's societal impact and what, if any, lifestyle choices the video seemed to be promoting, we both agreed the snare track was pretty sweet.

Reconstruction Site was a hit - a cohesive album of disarmingly sincere songs celebrating the kinds of emotions and experiences that are common across all sects of the population. While my mother and I have more or less given up political discussions, both of us can appreciate a song sung from a house cat's perspective as he confronts his owner over his self-defeating attitude. We can't agree over the government's role in providing healthcare, but we both recognize the cat raises some really compelling points.

I hear Reconstruction Site as a political album not due to what it discusses, but what the band feels no need to mention. John Samson has spent a lifetime writing political music, from his work in Propagandhi to early Weakerthans songs that discussed the frustrations of reconciling radical politics with everyday life (see: "Confessions of a Futon Revolutionist"). But slowly amassing throughout his catalogue are songs about love and depression and the small victories and defeats of everyday life. Reconstruction Site is nearly devoid of overt political statements that would easily fit into a liberal or conservative framework. Instead we hear songs about the frustrated wage employees trapped in a city they've grown to hate ("One Great City") and about the insatiable desire to reshape those things that make us uncertain and insecure ("New Name For Everything"). Songs like these transcend our self-imposed political dichotomy (note: Canada is neither a red state nor a blue state) by talking about the reasons we care about healthcare or the minimum wage in the first place. Where albums of songs on similar topics may also be devoid of political statements, few have been written atop a similar back catalogue. When I worked for the Service Employee's International Union, workers would regularly bring their kids to rallies. They might not have been as loud as the other protestors, but that's because they didn't need to yell. Their reasons for demanding more rights and more money were walking beside them. Context is everything and sometimes a parent walking next to his or her child can be a powerful statement.

My mom and I haven't discussed this upcoming election very much. If I find out she likes Palin, I think I'll have some severe allergic reaction, like in "My Girl" when those bees messed up the kid from "Home Alone." But, to state the obvious, emotions and experiences shape our existence and common emotions and common experiences create bonds. Everyone falls in love or feels lonely or sifts through childhood memories and we don't discuss these things often enough. So while I'll be reading Salon.com these next few weeks and she'll be watching Fox News, at least we can still agree that the cat raises some really compelling points.