[Audio] Frank Ocean – Channel Orange (Full Album Stream)

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re more than aware of the recent media interest around Frank Ocean. Timing couldn’t be better to have everyone talking about him for his official debut album, Channel Orange whose digital release was apparently pushed up to take advantage of the buzz. BTW: the video up top is of Ocean performing the single, “Bad Religion” from Channel Orange with The Roots on ‘Late Night with Jimmy Fallon’ last night.

Previously on The Kitchen:

– Frank Ocean of Odd Future (OFWGKTA) – Nostalgia, Ultra (FULL album stream)

– 64 Unreleased Songs from Frank Ocean

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 5. Azari & III – Azari & III

This is another one of the few albums I was familiar with before getting into my epic journey of long list-nominated album listening. As I had said before and during the Polaris Salon I was a panel member of (which you can listen to HERE if you missed it, click podcast #1): the Azari & III album is fantastic! Like I also said, I can probably count the number of truly great (non-compilation/DJ Mix) house music albums on two hands and this just might be one of them. The album references early, classic Trax Records vibes but gives them a fresh, shiny coat of paint so it feels modern and new and not dated or like a pastiche.

I was privy to some discussions that tried to justify the worth of this album because of the sociopolitical subtext of the lyrics and their commentary on AIDS, addiction, homophobia etc. I think that’s cool but I actually don’t have an issue with celebrating a record that is “just dance music” or a “soundtrack to partying” if it’s great at being that. What’s wrong with being excellent within those parameters anyway? Do you know how hard that is to make an album that works as music a real DJ could credibly play in his sets at the club and also as an at-home listening experience? Azari & III managed to thread that incredibly tough needle and do both with their album.

If you love dance music or even if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and think electronic music is not ‘real’ music or something that makes for a great album listening experience and should stay in the clubs, then you need to check this out. On my short list and proudly so!

[album stream via Hypetrak]

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 29. Parlovr – Kook Soul

Have to admit, the Kook Soul album by Parlovr wasn’t too bad. It was a solid listen all the way through and there were tracks I dug. “Married on a Sunday” had a bit of a vaguely Bloc Party feel to it the way the vocals were delivered and I also dig “4000.” Overall though, while it was good it wasn’t transcendentally good to my ears. I already had three picks locked in for my short list ballot that I had voted onto the long list one and there were just other albums I like more than this to fill my final two slots.

[album stream via Exclaim!]

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 33. John K. Samson – Provincial

Solo outing by the lead singer of Winnipeg group, The Weakerthans. Yes, you guessed it: more folky flavored singer-songwriter indie sounds. To be fair, it actually did sound pretty good (click the player above to hear for yourself) but honestly, how much of this f-cking stuff does the world need??! Sometimes I get frustrated ‘cos I can’t get people excited by what I think is an exceptionally well-made hip hop album. And I’ve dismissed other albums for Polaris nomination advocacy consideration on my part that turn out to dust the floor with a lot of these long list-nominated albums I’ve been listening to the past couple of weeks and, in hindsight, maybe I should have given that shot to after all. Or maybe that’s just me.

Back to Mr. Samson though. I guess credit due for being able to write a song out of a real life petition he launched? Or is he just another privileged white dude writing about privileged white guy problems? Well not to end on a provocative or negative note though. I did like the track, “The Last And” and if anyone can tell me what prayer he swiped the melody for “Stop Error” from, I’d appreciate it because it’s driving me crazy trying to recall it.

[album stream via exclaim!]

A Look at the Polaris Long List: 11. Cannon Bros – Firecracker​/​Cloudglow

This album was, to my ears, a blend of the folk-y indie sound that, as a genre, seems to dominate the Polaris list year after year but mixed with power pop (by way of oddly, New Order maybe??) which, by Polaris standards, actually rates as making this progressive, relatively speaking. As you can probably guess if you’ve been reading my reviews, just by dint of being a decent but not exceptional execution of that sound, this didn’t rate high in contention for me when I was figuring out my short list ballot picks although some tracks did appeal (like “Plan Rock”, “Glow” and “Just Anybody” to name just some).