Some of you may have already noticed that the Polaris Committee has selected the Lost List of the best 40 albums in Canadian music over the last 12 months. You may also know that the Captain/President/CEO Justin Beach of the NxEW Music Blog is doing something of a Polaris Shadow Competition, which anyone can participate in (see the differences b/w the real Polaris and the NxEW version here). And, you may also know that I pretended that I was a juror (in the real competition) and made my picks last Monday (I did actually participate in the NxEW one).
A couple of things that struck me about the long list:
- The sheer number of bands from Montreal (17), particularly the number of bands from Montreal that I had never, ever, ever, heard of.... C'mon! I can't believe that there were 17 bands from Montreal that made better albums than the the Black Hat Brigade and the Sunparlour Players. Note to those who select the jurors... you could use a little diversity...
- Also, the number of bands NOT from big cities (2)... shitty...
- The number of "Big" Indie releases that weren't great, but were selected on their name: Metric, Handsome Furs, Wolf Parade, K-Os, K'naan.
- Albums that I hope do well: Bruce Peninsula, Chad VanGaalen, Timber Timbre, Woodpigeon.
- I'll be completely shocked if Pink Mountaintops, Metric, K-Os or K'naan for musical diversity purposes, Bruce Peninsula, and Chad VanGaalen don't make the short list (I don't think Patrick Watson is a lock since he won two years ago).
- I'll be even more shocked if CVG isn't crowned the overall winner - he's due, he's produced a lot of really good music (see, in particular: Infiniheart and, to a certain extent, Skelliconnection), plus he's unique/weird enough to be "artistic"... remember the last 3 winners have all been quirky artists (Patrick Watson, Final Fantasy, and Caribou)...
[mp3] Chad VanGaalen - Willow Tree
[mp3] Timber Timbre - Demon Host
[mp3] Woodpigeon - Oberkampf
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