Archive for July, 2011
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 20. Land of Talk – Cloak and Cipher
There was a special Polaris Salon listening session presented by CHARTattack’s Aaron Brophy about this album back in April. Can’t say it blew me away as I listened to it down there back then. Repeat listens once it made the Long List didn’t sway me from that initial opinion either but maybe some of y’all might feel differently than I did?
Download Land of Talk Hamburg Noon
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 19. Imaginary Cities – Temporary Resident
Honestly, I don’t have much to say about this album. Homegirl’s got a pretty decent voice as I recall. Not a million miles from Adele (I seem to use her as a reference point in this Polaris run-down much more than I was expecting to).
Download Imaginary Cities Say You [MP3]
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 18. Hooded Fang – Hooded Fang – Album
Hooded Fang – Album generated a lot of chatter and support amongst members of the Polaris jury. The album has a real sunny, happy feel to me which I appreciate but it all started to feel the same melody and sound-wise after a while.
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 17. Hey Rosetta – Seeds
I think I said before there were a few albums on the long list that seemed to heavily evoke the sound of Bends/OK Computer-era Radiohead. This was one of them.
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 16. Tim Hecker – Ravedeath, 1972
This was an interesting album to have made the Polaris Long List. It was super ambient sounding. I mean I dig Eno, Autechre et al. but honestly, it was hard for me to imagine very many scenarios where someone would want to listen to this. That being the case, should an album like this be penalized or especially championed for something like Polaris? I’m not sure I know the answer to that question. Do any of y’all have any thoughts on that?