There was another big deadline I had to meet this week,
though this one was far less taxing.
It's Polaris Prize time again, and this week (June 8th at 11:59pm to be precise) the first ballots were due from jurors.
For those not familiar with the process, or not familiar with my run-down from last year, here's the scoop. The Polaris Prize has a jury of about 175 plus writers, critics, radio hosts, bloggers, other music types who are part of a monstrous list-serv where they debate the merits and faults of different Canadian albums all year long. Although the set up is a bit intimidating and there's more than a little of Simon Frith's ideas about music and discourse going on there, the overall high quality of posts on the list is evidence of how passionate jurors are about music.
With all these ballots submitted, Polaris headquarters tabulates and calculates and whatever-ates to come up with the 40 most voted upon albums. This is the long list. In a month or so, the jury votes again and whittles the top 40 down to a top ten. In a nice act of transparency, Polaris HQ has gone to great lengths to provide details on the judging process, which you can read about here
I said yesterday on the list-serv that I thought the quality of albums this year, as a whole, was slightly less than last year. Maybe I was just disappointed with the Plants and Animals follow up, or maybe there were just fewer knockout albums, but I didn't have as difficult a time filling out my ballot. There were clear stand outs but where I had about 30 albums vying for the last spot on my ballot last year, there were only really 3 or 4 albums fighting it out this year. I was particularly let down by the lack of a good solid rock album. Raccoon Wedding had a great disc, as did Young Rival, but nothing like Tokyo Police Club's last two discs or Bruce Peninsula's magnificent A Mountain is a Mouth.
Enough of what could have been. Here's what was, and despite the above caveat, these are all delightful albums, in their own ways. I'm obviously getting old though...most of my picks tended towards the softer, quieter efforts. Still, they were the ones that stuck with me through the year.
Here's what my first ballot looked like:
1. Oh Bijou - Beacons
Beacons came out very near the beginning of the eligibility period for this year's prize. I hope the rest of the jury didn't forget about it in the meantime. Though if you've listened to this album, you know it's pretty hard to forget. For the last 4 years or so, this Trinity Bellwoods-based collective has been making some of the most gorgeous, lush, bittersweet music in Canada. It's quiet when it needs to be but swells and expands like water. "Canon March" is 4min47sec of perfectly paced orchestral pop and the breakdown towards the end of "Make it Gold" is heart-wrenchingly emotive.
2. Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde
Easily the catchiest, funnest album made in Canada this year. The debut effort from this west coast crew of psych-rockers is full of clever moments. The harmonies are tight, the production is bright and the mood is pitch-perfect. This is my summer 2010 album, even though it arrived in my mailbox last fall or winter. It's also the only album on the long list that my 3 year old son loves enough to sing spontaneously when we're biking around town.
3. Evening Hymns - Spirit Guides
Giving Oh Bijou a run for their money in the "gorgeous and lush" categories, Evening Hymns' Spirit Guides is a frighteningly pretty disc. I was actually hesitant to include both on my ballot since they are so similar in tone (possibly because someone from Oh Bijou helped them record this), but Polaris rules stipulate that voting decisions should be made regardless of genre or whatever else. As a sound studies guy, I also like that the band included what amounts to a sound walk or field recording as one of their tracks: a 5 minute art piece of rain falling in Ontario. Every time I listen to this album, I'm torn. I want to stay awake to because it's so good, but it's also the perfect music to drift off to.
4. Karkwa - Les Chemins de Verre
Karkwa is one of the best benefits to come out of living in Montreal. I'm not sure how much traction they have outside this city/province, and I highly doubt I would have stumbled across them if I had moved anywhere else. Their last albums, Le Volume Du Vent, was one of my favourites of 2008. I think I was initially drawn to them because they sounded like a French version of Radiohead, but this album has them pulling on sounds from a range of respected rock acts (Beatles, Broken Social Scene, Patrick Watson). It's got moody guitars and pulsing beats, but it's well worth a listen. The lyrics are great too, even if I only catch half of them.
5. Reverie Sound Revue - Reverie Sound Revue
I've been telling anyone that would listen to pay attention to Reverie Sound Revue since this album found my inbox in the fall. The band is mystical, like a unicorn. They released an EP in 2003 which was 5 or 6 slices of indie-electro-pop bliss and then dropped off the face of the Canadian music scene (the band lives in 3 separate cities, making being a band pretty difficult. also, the lead singer, Lisa Lobsinger, is part of the extended Broken Social Scene gang, so that keeps her busy). I couldn't have been happier to hear they had a full length out, finally. It's delicate and fragile and incredibly understated. So much so that it doesn't have a hope in hell of making the long list. Still, I'll keep my fingers crossed for this seriously underrated dark horse.
Runners Up:
Shad. This guy is probably one of Canada's most talented hip hop lyricists right now. I say this having absolutely no credibility in knowledge of Canada's vast hip hop scenes. My point is he's damn good, and so is this album. I won't be surprised if he's on my final ballot.
Aidan Knight. I knew next to nothing about Aidan Knight and his album Versicolour when it landed on my desk. He overcame my lack of expectations and then some. The disc is filled with thoughtful tracks that linger long after listening.
PostdataPostdata is the project of Wintersleep's Paul Murphy. It was locked into my ballot until Evening Hymns came along, but it wasn't easy choosing between the two. It's a (mostly) stripped down intimate album, made up of poetic fragments and dream spaces.
Do Make Say Think Broken Social Scene and Do Make Say Think both had excellent albums this year. I was particularly impressed with DMST's Other Truths and was sad not to have been able to include it on my ballot. They should get to the long list just for having the guts to record an album with 4 12-minute songs. They are easily some of Canada's most talented musicians.
More on Polaris in the upcoming weeks. For those interested in the process, the long list gets announced in 7 days.
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