November 2018 reviews

These reviews ran in the Waterloo Record in November.

Art d'Ecco – Trespasser (Paper Bag)

If you had guessed that glam rock would be a trend in Canadian pop music in 2018, you’ve been proven right: first with Quebec’s Hubert Lenoir, then with the strange story of Toronto’s Ensign Broderick, and now with Art D’Ecco, who claims to have written and record his debut album on a remote island in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia, in a cabin recently vacated by his Alzheimer’s-stricken grandmother. D’Ecco appears in his press material in a wig, clothes and makeup seemingly lifted from a high school production of Rocky Horror Picture Show, and the music fits accordingly, somewhere between T. Rex, the Cure and Suede. Normally such a shtick and back story are alarm bells for style over substance, but D’Ecco has assembled a rousing rock’n’roll record that, among other things, does not at all sound like it was recorded in the wilderness surrounded by Douglas firs. Opening track “Never Tell” is one of the best pop songs to come out of this country in the last 12 months, and the rest of the record comes close to matching it. (Nov. 30)

Stream: "Never Tell," "Nobody's Home," "Mary”

Fever Feel – s/t (independent)

A lot of modern psychedelic rock bands rely on technology and effects to get trippy. This Victoria-via-Calgary band, on the other hand, has old-school jazz chops and it sounds like they’ve put in some serious time on stage in the four years since their debut single. This, their first full-length, displays an admirably stubborn streak that refuses to acknowledge any music more modern than, say, 1975. Pedal steel guitars, flutes and bongos augment this guitar-bass-organ-drum quartet, who have no qualms shifting tempos or moods mid-song. If you thought Black Mountain was retro, they’ve got nothing on Fever Feel. It works. And unlike, say, Greta van Fleet, there’s no specifically shameless homage going on. It’s just a vibe, man. (Nov. 16)

Stream: “Spitting Silver,” “Lose Your Mind,” “Already There”

Kyp Harness – s/t (independent)

Yeah, it’s weird for your 14^th album to be self-titled, which is usually reserved for debut records. But 14 albums in, maybe you’ve just run out of titles. And if you’re still largely unknown enough outside of your peer group, as is the case with perennially underrated Toronto songwriter Kyp Harness, you might as well introduce yourself yet again. Harness’s earnest songs are usually about maintaining some semblance of optimism when the deck is stacked against you; he’s nothing if not consistent and persistent. His records usually oscillate between campus-radio scrappy—like the ones he made with Gord Downie’s backing band, the Dinner is Ruined—and more polished folk records aimed at a more CBC audience. This time he’s right in the middle, joining forces with pianist Tania Gill and a solid rhythm section who provide welcoming and colourful arrangements, captured in a live and spontaneous setting that showcases everyone’s strengths. It’s never too late to warm to Harness’s many gifts, and he recently branched out to become a novelist; his second in two years, The Abandoned, was released this fall. A master storyteller in any medium. (Nov. 23)

Stream: “Talkin’ to Myself,” “Jungle Out There,” “Insomniac’s Lullaby”

Harrison – Apricity (Last Gang)

Following in the footsteps of Kaytranada and Bonjay, the second album by Toronto producer Harrison is a warm amalgam of mostly instrumental R&B, house, soul and pop. While it’s unlikely he’s actually surrounded himself with 35-year-old instruments, Harrison taps warm analog sounds here to great effect. Apparently, after his debut album, he was determined up to his musicianship and started taking piano lessons. There’s certainly no Stevie Wonder wizardry here, but his musical education has paid obvious dividends: where he was once a mildly interesting beatmaker, he’s now ready to take his place among the best working today. (Nov. 2)

Stream: “Celica Supra,” “Your Girl” feat. Ralph, “Wavestation”

Doug Paisley – Starter Home (No Quarter)

Toronto’s Doug Paisley was one of the most promising new songwriters of this decade, with 2010’s Constant Companion hailed (by me, but also many others) as an instant classic, the kind of album that actually warranted comparisons to greats like Gordon Lightfoot. These were songs of neither a young man nor an old man; these were songs that sounded like they’ve always existed. Starter Home is only his second album since then, however; he spent the last four years on paternity leave, and this new collection finds him firmly rooted in midlife, questioning his surroundings, his future—and other light subjects. The arrangements are gentle and unassuming, never distracting from Paisley’s deft acoustic guitar work or his warm-sweater voice and storytelling. Blue Rodeo’s Bazil Donovan shows up on bass, as does Paisley’s go-to choice for harmonies, Jennifer Castle. Doug Paisley will never be the type to be hyped, but his records are the ones you’ll put on at the end of a long week, the songs echoing conversations with old friends. (Nov. 9)

Stream: “No Way to Know,” “Easy Money,” “Waiting”

Sandro Perri – In Another Life (Constellation)

Singing about another life is one thing; creating a sonic landscape that suggests an alternate reality, some fate of quantum physics in which you’ve held some parallel Parisian existence, in a city that attracts the lost souls of the world looking for truth and beauty by the streets beside the Seine. “In Another Life” is more of a tone poem than an album of songs; each of these four tracks burbles along at a leisurely pace, synths and jazzy elements intertwining to sound like nothing from this world. Perri sings the first two songs, including the 24-minute title track—which, oddly enough, never wears out its welcome, despite its static dynamic; it’s more meditative than music. He then turns vocals over to Andre Ethier (Deadly Snakes) and Dan Bejar (Destroyer) to riff on two versions of a song called “Everybody’s Paris.” Four tracks in 43 minutes end before you know it; a dreamier distraction you’d be hard to find. (Nov. 2)

Stream: all of it. It’s four songs.

Kurt Vile – Bottle It In (Matador)
J Mascis – Elastic Days (Sub Pop)

Kurt Vile must be excited about cannabis legalization in Canada, not to mention a recent referendum victory in Michigan. It’s the only way I can imagine his audience growing. And yet I’m clearly in the minority: Mysteriously, his fan base keeps growing, sucking in local Canucks the Sadies and Fucked Up, as well as the infinitely more talented Courtney Barnett, with whom Vile recorded a duo album, which they promoted together with a full tour.

Vile has made a career out of meandering, slack-jawed, mid-tempo guitar noodling that targets the indie rock crowd rather than Deadheads. This is a road well-travelled, of course, starting with J Mascis and Pavement and onwards. But Vile seems to luxuriate in his laconic state; his records sound like they were recorded lying down on a couch with a huge spliff in his mouth. Tempos are never likely to quicken the pulse, and nothing much of anything seems to happen in any of this songs. And there are a lot of songs: not just on this 13-track album (which includes three songs that clock in around 10 minutes each), but on Vile’s eight albums in the last 10 years. Is it a coincidence or an intensely self-aware joke that two of the best tracks here are called “One Trick Ponies” and “Rollin With the Flow”?

J Mascis is definitely in on his own joke. He has to be, if, on the opening track of his new solo record, he sings in his trademark drawl: "I don't peak too early. I don't peak at all." It’s kind of amazing that Mascis has never written that lyric until this point in his life, more than 30 years into his career. The Dinosaur Jr. guitarist and singer is known for his laid-back vocal delivery, both on stage and off, which clashes with the fretboard fireworks he unleashes under a torrent of distortion and fury. But there’s always been a softer side to Mascis as well, not unlike his hero Neil Young. While Dinosaur Jr. has been putting out surprisingly strong comeback records in the last 13 years, Mascis has been releasing softer solo albums on the side. With lowered expectations comes great freedom, and “Elastic Days” is the sound of Mascis being just casually awesome, like it’s no big deal. Like Vile, Mascis sings like he’s in a horizontal position. Unlike Vile, everything else about Mascis’s music—the guitar, obviously, but also the drumming and the overall arrangements—displays a great deal of detail and care. After more than 18 albums, Mascis’s way with a melody isn’t showing any sign of letting up; most of these songs are as good or better than the finest in his discography.

In this incarnation of old school versus new school, score one for the old man. (Nov. 23)

Stream Kurt Vile: "One Trick Ponies," "Rollin With the Flow," “Come Again”
Stream J Mascis: “See You At the Movies,” "I Went Dust," “Sky Is All We Had”

Devon Welsh – Dream Songs (You Are Accepted)

In another life, Devon Welsh would have been a preacher—or at least a cantor. Mind you, the 30-year-old still has plenty of time to into that calling, should he choose. Right now, however, he’s (thankfully) ditched his (godawful) former moniker Majical Cloudz and debuting under his own name, while the music largely remains the same: slow, brooding, intense, with Welsh’s vocals stretching out long notes in the melody, his earnest lyrics seeking connection. Welsh solo uses more acoustic instruments, including a string and woodwind sections, instead of the electronic textures of Majical Cloudz—a duo that toured the world as Lorde’s opening act, the year of her breakthrough—but the arrangements are otherwise similar.

“Things more powerful than you control the actions in your life,” he tells us in the first verse of the first song here. Throughout, he sounds like a self-help guru of sorts—not just his lyrics, but the delivery as well. If you’re not in the right mood, Welsh comes off like a morose mope. Or you could view his vocal approach in the same you would a Sufi qawwali singer, or a Jewish hazzan, or chanting monks. Modern secular spirituals best absorbed while soaking in a hot bath.  (Nov. 2)

Stream: “Dreams Have Pushed You Around,” “By the Daylight,” “Over the Ladder”

The Al Purdy Songbook

The Al Purdy Songbook – Various Artists (Borealis)

“Though poets die, a lullaby still whispers faintly in the room,” sings Sarah Harmer on a song she adapted from an Al Purdy poem for this project.

Those words were certainly true in 2016, when we lost both Leonard Cohen and Gord Downie to the dead poets society. But at the same time, the work of another great Canadian poet, who died in 2000, was echoing with a new resonance, thanks to the 2015 film Al Purdy Was Here, the directorial debut from former Maclean’s film critic Brian D. Johnson.

That film was a triumph on several levels: as vital Canadian cultural history, as a visually gorgeous film (shot by Nicholas de Pencier, who collaborates with Jennifer Baichwal on films like Long Time Running, Watermark and the new Anthropocene), as a documentary with a surprising twist, and, finally, as a catalyst for some of this country’s greatest musicians to engage with Purdy’s work. Johnson had always intended music to be a huge part of his film, and for a variety of reasons it took three years for this soundtrack of sorts to come to fruition. But it’s finally here, and it’s fabulous. (It also comes packaged with a DVD/Blu-Ray of the film.)

  

It opens with Bruce Cockburn, whom Johnson coaxed out of semi-retirement to write and record “3 Al Purdys”—which in turn became an anchor track on Cockburn’s most recent album, Bone to Bone. It also features one of the last things Leonard Cohen ever recorded: a recitation of “Necropsy of Love.” The parade of legends doesn’t stop there: Margaret Atwood recites “Wilderness Gothic,” Greg Keelor adapts Purdy’s poem “Woman” into “Unprovable” (“As unprovable as the sun on the other side of the world”). Gord Downie appears not once, but twice: with his highly underrated 2010 song “The East Wind,” which lifts lightly from Purdy, and a recitation of “At the Quinte Hotel,” which is a poem that “a sensitive man” such as Downie was born to read: it’s about bar fights in century-old hotels—something the Tragically Hip are more than familiar with—and about how poetry will buy you neither beer nor respect. Downie also does a striking Purdy impression at one point in the poem.

The best track here, however, goes to Downie disciple and friend Sarah Harmer, whose “Just Get Here” is not only perhaps the best melody she’s written in almost 20 years, but it summarizes the spirit of Purdy’s A-frame in Ameliasburg, Ontario, in Prince Edward County, which functioned as a gathering place for generations of Canadian poets—and continues to do so, having been restored for artist residencies. (A fundraising campaign to make that possible was the catalyst for Johnson’s interest in making this film.) On top of all that, her vocal and piano performance is devastating. While Harmer fans continue to hold out for new material (which is actually coming, though long delayed), this alone compensates for the eight-year wait.

 

Also appearing: Doug Paisley, Snowblink, Jason Collett, Felicity Williams, and Bidiniband—Dave Bidini, of course, like Downie, an enormous Purdy fan, who sampled Purdy’s voice on a 1994 Rheostatics song. If there’s any complaint with the choice of contributors, it’s that they all hail from an easy driving distance to Al’s A-frame; Purdy’s influence was felt far and wide across the Great White North, not just Ontario.

Tribute albums to musicians are often a hit-and-miss affair; this tribute to a poet, however, in which musicians were free to end the original text to their own uses, works brilliantly. Whether or not the name Al Purdy means anything to you: see the film, listen to the music, and, by all means, go back to the original texts. And say the names. (Nov. 9)


The album is being launched Tuesday, Nov. 26 at the Arts and Letters Club in Toronto, at 7.30 p.m.

Stream: “Just Get Here” by Sarah Harmer, “Transient” by Doug Paisley, “At the Quinte Hotel” by Gord Downie

Polaris Prize long list overview

36? - Where Do We Go From Here?

The Polaris Prize long list was released last week. I “Moneyballed” it for Maclean’s here.

I didn’t mention there that I had predicted 29/40 in my previous post.

Here are the 11 I got wrong:

36? – This is the one I’m most disappointed in. It was on my ballot. More people should hear it. But as a direct result of this discussion, one programmer at a major Canadian festival told me he put the band “at the top of the pile.” (Aside: What does that mean in 2014? He still listens to discs? He puts their MP3s at the top of his playlist?)

Braids – Slightly shocking, considering their last record was shortlisted in 2011—and this one is better.

Kevin Drew – Kind of shocking, considering Drew’s profile and the strength of this record. Yet his last solo album didn’t make a long list either. Did “Mexican Aftershow Party” kill any buzz this time?

Duck Sauce – Seeing how this album follows up a hit single three years ago, not that shocking.

Egyptrixx – Not surprising; honestly, I had it as a long shot.

Hidden Cameras – I thought this was their strongest album in many moons; clearly I was one of the only ones.

Christine Jensen Jazz Orchestra – Again, a long shot; jazz doesn’t travel far in Polaris circles—or at least, a consensus jazz pick is hard to find.

Jordan Klassen – An admitted longshot. But a lovely record.

Lindi Ortega – I didn’t hear half as much chatter about her latest record as I did the long-listed one that preceded it, so perhaps not surprising.

Doug Paisley – Many people were shocked Paisley didn’t make it, considering his increased profile. Yet, as a big fan of the guy myself, I didn’t find Strong Feelings anywhere near as compelling as Constant Companion, so this didn’t surprise me.

Slakah the Beatchild – This is an unfortunate omission; there’s never enough hip-hop and R&B on the list, and this is one of the stronger Canadian releases of either genre I’ve heard in a while. Now if Shad had beats like this, he’d be unstoppable. Can someone please put those two together?

Other albums I would have loved to see get some Polaris recognition, but didn't: Nick Buzz, Shane Abram Nelken, Adrian Raso and Fanfare Ciocarlia. But hey, my #1 pick, AroarA, made the list.

2014 long-listers that surprised me:

Chromeo – This album is rather new; I hadn’t heard it at the time I voted, and I falsely assumed most jurors didn’t take this band seriously.

Cousins – I’m allergic to most things that remind me of lo-fi ’90s indie rock; I’ll admit I didn’t pay any attention to this band after hearing the record once or twice.

Cowboy Junkies’ Kennedy Suite – This is a shocker, considering what a squandering of talent is involved. So many great people involved; maybe one or two songs worthy of them to sing.

Frog Eyes – I’m really excited to see this on the list, as Frog Eyes is a unique force in Canadian music. That said, I hadn’t heard the album at the time of voting; it was released several months ago to extremely low profile, and put out properly by Paper Bag merely a few weeks ago.

Mounties – I did not think Polaris jurors still followed the careers of Hawksley Workman and Hot Hot Heat.

Odonis Odonis – Not that surprising, as this record has had good buzz. But it is surprising when you actually listen to it. Really? I also thought it might just have Toronto appeal.

Philippe B – I wasn’t sure who else other than Jimmy Hunt and Dead Obie$ would rep franco Quebec, so this was a pleasant surprise.

Solids – I honestly had no idea who this band was.

The Darcys – I wish I honestly had no idea who this band was. 

[Aside: Why do Polaris folks alphabetize “the” bands by the letter T? Oh, iTunes, you’ve ruined us all.]

Thus Owls – The Toronto Star’s Ben Rayner firmly believes this band is the second coming. I wasn’t sure who else agreed with him. Was he allowed to fill in all five slots on his ballot with Thus Owls?

Tim Hecker – Not at all surprising, considering he’s been long-listed twice before. But I didn’t sense that this had the same momentum as either An Imaginary Country or Ravedeath 1972.

And the unexpected bonus round this year goes to Winnipeg’s Greg McPherson, who got left off the long list due to some kind of computer glitch in voting. Polaris is not removing anything from the list—for obvious reasons of optics, logistics and politics—so there is, in fact, 41 albums on this year’s long list.

The shortlist will be announced July 15.