Day three!
Recap: I cast my ballot for the
Polaris Prize this week. Jurors only get five slots. Almost 200 albums were
suggested by fellow jury members. A long list of 40 will be published next
week. As always, there’s no shortage of excellent Canadian music. But this year
there’s no one album—or even three—that I feel so obviously tower above the
rest. Which makes the winnowing even more difficult.
I’m not going to tell
you what’s on my ballot, but these are the 40 records I considered (10 in each post). Most of
these have been discussed by the Polaris jury at some point, but this is a very
personal list that no one should read into deeply. Many of these will likely
not make the long list, and many not mentioned here most definitely will.
Final caveat: I’m a 48yo
anglo white dad who lives in Toronto with all the obvious blind spots that entails,
so take all this with as many grains of salt you feel are required.
Part 3/4:
Kacy & Clayton – Carrying
On: This duo are second
cousins from south Saskatchewan who have now made two records with producer
Jeff Tweedy in Chicago, but you’d be forgiven if you thought this was a lost
Laurel Canyon classic. Kacy Anderson takes most of the lead vocals, and, along with
Jennifer Castle, she may well be the most compelling female voice in Canadian
folk music since Frazey Ford showed up in the Be Good Tanyas. This duo’s take
on countrified folk is lazy, hazy and fairly sparse. In other words, it’s
perfect. Yet another act I wish I was seeing at a folk festival this summer. Bandcamp link here.
Kaytranada – Bubba: This album dropped in the dying days of
December, after a lot of publications assembled their year-end lists, and so
got somewhat lost in the shuffle. It was also an album that, though I loved
Kaytranada’s Polaris-winning debut, I didn’t want to listen to in the dead of
winter. This is summer music! Maybe it was big in Australia five months ago?!
Giving it a proper listen now, in warmer climes, it’s a winning follow-up to 99.9%.
The worst thing I can say about it is that it doesn’t expand on what the artist
has already accomplished, and the guests are less inspiring this time around
(especially, perhaps oddly, Pharrell Williams). But it’s head and shoulders
above everyone in this genre not named Anderson.Paak. And the hotter it gets,
the better it sounds. 
Lightning Dust – Spectre: Josh Wells and Amber Webber left Black
Mountain a few years ago; they’d been in that band since the beginning and even
before, in its predecessor Jerk With a Bomb. Over the years they put out three
duo albums as Lightning Dust; all were great, none of them got much traction.
Now that this is their full-time project (when Wells isn’t drumming for
Destroyer’s live band), they’ve returned with a whopper. Webber is still one of
the most distinctive and compelling voices in Canada, her witchy tremolo
perfectly suited to the minor-key psychedelic folk songs she writes with Wells,
which sound like they came out between in the years between ’70s soft rock and
the birth of new wave (“Run Away” sounds like Patti Smith covering Springsteen’s
“The River” in 1981). Honestly, I could listen to Webber sing just about
anything, but this is the strongest material she’s ever delivered, while
drummer/producer/keyboardist Wells retains his rep as one of the MVPs on the
West Coast. This side project now has their full attention, and it shows. Now
it deserves yours. Bandcamp link here.
Lil Andy – All the
Love Songs Lied To Us: "All the Love Songs Lied to Us"—the
title sounds like something Stephen Merritt would have penned for 69 Love
Songs. And that's the league Andy is aiming for here, albeit within a
specific sonic space, and tied specifically to country music. Not an urban hipster
ironic take on country music, either. Andy is a songwriter in love with the
literary side of country music: the clichés that ring true, the wordplay, the
storytelling. While the instrumentation doesn't stray from the traditional, the
lyrics are resolutely set in the modern world. But about that instrumentation:
he's got Montreal MVP Joe Grass at his side here. His guitar playing here is
downright magical, like Nels Cline playing straight-up country. Andy's love of
Leonard Cohen shows in the ornamental use of female backing vocals, notably on
"The Lives of Others." But longtime collaborator Katie Moore—another
Montreal MVP—also provides gorgeous, straight-up Emmylou-ish harmonies
underneath Andy's rich baritone. This is a country record, but one that
transcends genre. Most important, it's a songwriter's record, brilliantly
illustrated by top-notch arrangements, sparse and gorgeous production, and
lovely vocal performances all around. For years now, Lil Andy has been working
somewhat quietly within the confines of a certain Montreal neighbourhood. This
record deserves to be heard around the world. Bandcamp
link here. 
Little Scream – Speed
Queen: This is richly produced, textural pop music
that sounds like Fleetwood Mac made by art school students: soft rock with real
bite, as oxymoronic as that may sound. Lyrically, she's a poetic force, at
times Joni-esque, an acute observer with a razor-sharp pen: "I don't mind
burning bridges to gated houses I don't want to live in." First single
"Dear Leader" is an absolutely essential song for these times (by
which I mean at least the last decade, not just the last month). There's some
songwriting collaborations here from Mike Feuerstack (Snailhouse, Wooden
Stars), Mike Dubue (Hilotrons), Pietro Amato (Bell Orchestre, Luyas) and Richard
Reed Parry (Arcade Fire); all of them bring their top game here, resulting in
what is easily Sprengelmeyer's best album so far. The songwriting, the
production (Marcus Paquin: Arcade Fire, Stars, Begonia, Sarah Harmer, etc.),
the arrangements, the playing and her inviting vocals are all top-notch. This
one took some time to grow on me, and then it hit me hard. Real hard. Bandcamp link here.
Loving – If I Am Only
My Thoughts: I don’t have a lot to
say about this Victoria band’s second release except that I never liked Mac
DeMarco but I love this and listening to it makes me feel too drunk and
sun-baked to actually say anything intelligent. Tune in, turn on, drop out and
all that. Bandcamp
link here. 
Jon Mckiel – Bobby
Joe Hope: There’s a fascinating
backstory to this record, involving an old reel-to-reel tape machine Mckiel
purchased, which included tape with instrumental snippets recorded likely
decades ago. The Sackville, N.B.-based Mckiel collaborated with Joyfultalk’s
Jay Crocker in rural Nova Scotia to “collaborate” with this found material to
create hazy folk songs for a psychedelic breakfast. In the lineage of Atlantic
Canadian weirdness, this is very much an extension of Eric’s Trip, though
obviously its own thing, creating modern magic with vintage tools in a dialogue
with the past. Bandcamp
link here. 
Marleana Moore – Pay
Attention, Be Amazed!: This is another of my favourite discoveries from
fellow jurors. This Edmonton songwriter is bound to appeal to anyone raised on
90s indie rock or more recent purveyors like Angel Olsen or this album’s
producer, Chad Van Gaalen. Moore has an inviting voice with a wide range, the
songwriting is incredibly strong, and the players (including members of
Calgary’s Preoccupations) provide perfect colour. I’m at an age where
twentysomething indie rock usually either bores me to tears or drives me
bananas; this record easily rises far above her peers (i.e. the Boygenius
crowd). Extra points for the beautiful cover art and the entirely apt
title. Bandcamp
link here. 
New Pornographers – In
the Morse Code of the Brake Lights: It’s more than easy to take this band for granted: this is their
eighth album, Dan Bejar is long gone, and 2017’s Whiteout Conditions was
incredibly disappointing—even more so because it followed the late-career
highlight Brill Bruisers in 2014. Morse Code finds the band back
on track, playing to all their strengths: lush, inventive, intricate power-pop
rock with plenty of left turns and massive harmonies. Just because they’re now
celebrating their 20th year together doesn’t mean we should appreciate them any
less; this album, like Brill Bruisers, guarantees they won’t remain a
nostalgia act. 
Obuxum – Re-Birth: “Take up SPACE!!” is the title of one track
here; the emphasis is hers, not mine. It’s a reference to the fact that this
young beatmaker from Toronto’s Rexdale neighbourhood doesn’t see a lot of
support for people like her: i.e. a Somali-Canadian woman making electronic
music. She travels interstellar paths similar to those of fellow
Habesha-Canadian Witch Prophet or L.A.’s Flying Lotus: dreamy, discombobulated,
rich with texture. She got some spotlight when she produced “In Women Colour”
for Haviah Mighty’s Polaris-winning album last year, but she’s not the type to
normally work with MCs. She’s much better off left untethered in her travels,
where she can take up as much space as she needs. Bandcamp link here.
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