Cover Your Tracks
Polaris season is upon us once again. A good number of albums have been making lasting impressions since last June, and today the Polaris Music Prize revealed the long list of nominees for this year’s award. Forty very talented, very deserving artists were announced, and in the coming weeks the jury will be cutting that down to ten. Since I’m not a member of the jury*, I’m relegated to just running down a wishlist of what my ballot would look like. It’s really difficult to narrow it to just five picks, so I can only imagine the kind of exigency the jury must feel.
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Say what you will about Arcade Fire, but The Suburbs is an album that continues to excite me almost a year after its release. There is probably isn’t a more debated record on this years long list, but as much as I like to keep impartial and open-minded, I honestly can’t understand the arguments against it. The Suburbs is a deeply felt experience, and the band’s finest output to date.
+MP3: Arcade Fire – Half Light II (No Celebration)
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Austra – Feel It Break
It’s a testament to just how absolutely great Feel It Break is when it appears on the long list barely a month after its release. Austra dazzled listeners with a blend of late 80s/early 90s electro-pop that’s informed by modern times, and melded with gripping, evocative vocals that, on paper, probably shouldn’t have worked as magnificently as it does.
+MP3: Austra – The Villain
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The Rural Alberta Advantage – Departing
It took me a while to warm up to Departing. Not that it wasn’t good, but for I while I felt that it was a step backwards from the phenomenal Hometowns. However, Departing is cold, autumnal album that takes its time to warm up. Once it has, it’s an emotionally melting affair, marked by its simple beauty and sparkling songwriting.
+MP3: The Rural Alberta Advantage – Stamp
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Stars - The Five Ghosts
The Five Ghosts was interesting for me because it felt like a record that was greater than the sum of its parts. Every track was solid, but as a whole it felt far more chilling than any one cut could imply. Stars’ trademark melancholy is in full swing, but the band takes the right steps back and makes room for those ghosts they write of.
+MP3: Stars – Dead Hearts
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Young Galaxy – Shapeshifting
Young Galaxy have never shied away from pushing against the boundaries that would cage lesser bands in, but Shapeshifting shied away from evolution in favour of revolution. This is a band that twisted themselves completely inside-out, sculpting an icy cold, 80s-indebted and dance-inflicted pop album that drew away from the cresting guitars of records past. What’s more is that they sound completely comfortable in their new skin.
+MP3: Young Galaxy – Cover Your Tracks
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