A Look at the Polaris Long List: 18. Kathleen Edwards – Voyageur

I won’t lie. it’s hard for me to get into these singer-songwriter type albums with their folk, country or other influences thrown in the mix. Honestly they all kind of sound the same to me unless the vocals or songs are unique or exceptionally stand-out in some way. No disrespect to Ms. Edwards but while I couldn’t honestly say her album Voyageur, a musing on travel from what I’ve read, was terrible or anything like that, it didn’t cut through for me in a way that made me want to play it again or think that it sounded like it was a real contender the title of the best album made in Canada over the past year. I did like the last track, “For the Record” though. Here’s a couple other tracks from it for you to check out too:

Like those? Then hit the jump to hear the entire album via RDIO (preview snippets only will play if you are non-RDIO subscriber).

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A Look at the Polaris Long List: 16. Mark Davis – Eliminate the Toxins

Had to sniff around online to get a context for what I was listening to with this one: roots rocks infused with some post-rock influences, huh? OK. I can’t say that this album was bad or anything like that, it just wasn’t the kind of sound that moves me or the kind of record that I would play regularly. Here’s the title track for your perusal though:

Dig that? The hit the jump to check out the entire album via RDIO (preview snippets only for non-RDIO subscribers).

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A Look at the Polaris Long List: 7. The Barr Brothers – The Barr Brothers

Part of the delay I had in reviewing this and the Bahamas album which are next to each other on the page of Long List nominees was that I had a bit of a problem distinguishing one from the other when I played them.

I guess after multiple listen to both I would say this album more of an overtly Americana (Canadiana??) feel musically and vocally it has more in the way of harmonies courtesy of group members and brothers, Brad and Andrew Barr and the occasional guest vocals.

This is not the kind of album I tend to listen to or get excited about in general unless the songs are really exceptional or transcendent which they may be for connoisseurs of this style of music but not for me although for some reason I really dug “Give the Devil Back His Heart” with it’s very 70s era Who-like breakdown section. Dig what you heard in the sampler above though? Then hit the jump for a full album stream player via Paste magazine.

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A Look at the Polaris Long List: 6. Bahamas – Barchords

A facile description of this album would be to just call it singer-songwriter music with touches of folk and blues. I am not sure that’s really doing it justice though. Vocalist, Afie Jurvanen has an affecting voice that at times reminded me of Coldplay‘s Chris Martin when he’s singing ballads and this is a sold collection of music (stream it above) that is a worthy Long List nominee to my ears. I’ve actually played this album a few times just ‘cos I was trying to get my head around it but I’m not sure this is really threatening to make my short list ballot but wouldn’t be surprised or upset if it did make the short list.

[album stream Paste Magazine via the Totally Fuzzy blog]

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 30. Sandro Perri – Impossible Spaces

This is f-cking NICE! Just this side of delicate. Imagine if Kid A-era Radiohead decided to go acoustic and dabble in samba and you’ll get at least some sense of what Sandro Perri is doing here musically. “Futureactive Kid (Part 1)”? Wow! The whole thing is just beautiful though….