Between now and June 25 when I have to cast my second ballot for this year’s Polaris Prize I will be listening to and remarking on albums that I hadn’t checked out or given a fair shake before the Long List came out.
Elephant Stone – The Seven Seas
I don’t really care for this one. The sitar comes through really well in some places and it has some cool moments but I just keep thinking how I’d rather be listening to the Brian Jonestown Massacre . I might be compelled to come back to it but only if someone bothers to make the case.
La Patère Rose – S/T
This is the only one of the three Long-Listed francophone releases that I hadn’t already heard with the other two being Malajube (cool music pretty bad lyrics) and Coeur de Pirate (kinda meh.) Anyways I was pretty impressed by la Patère Rose and I think I will come back to it. It draws on an interesting collection of influences melding a classic chanteuse style with modern electronic and rock flavours. I didn’t listen too carefully because I was debugging code at the time (gross) but I will definitely be coming back to it before the deadline.
On deck: k-os Tim Hecker Jill Barber .
