It’s a Canada Thing
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 28. Daniel Romano – Sleep Beneath the Willow
If I was turned off by the fact that Doug Paisley was a little too light on the alternative quotient in his supposed ‘alt. country’, Daniel Romano was like kryptonite to my ears by comparison. Maybe this is actually great and it’s execution of a down-the-middle trad. country sound (at least it didn’t sound like Top 40 country to me) noteworthy, but it was lost on me, frankly.
MP3 Stream (no download): Daniel Romano – Hellens Restaurant by woasong
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 27. PS I Love You – Meet Me at the Muster Station
When I first played this I wrote, “got some energy to it, reminds me of Passion Pit and MGMT.” Still stand by that, especially as compared to a lot of downtempo, ethereal fare that seemed to populate the Long List, but I’m 50-50 on the band references now. There’s definitely shades of those two band’s sound in the PS I love You sound but I think they stand on their own two legs with their own distinct sound. Or do they?
MP3 stream (no download): PS I Love You-Facelove by Canadian Blast
MP3 stream (no download): PS I Love You – 2012 by StreetlightX
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 25. One Hundred Dollars – Songs of Man
I didn’t write any notes on this one but playing it again now, it wasn’t bad but not strictly really my thing. You might dig this if you like hippie-ish folkie rock from the 70’s. I’m sure that’s a lousy description so just play the tracks (YouTube links only) I’ve attached and decide for yourself.
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 24. Miracle Fortress – Was I the Wave?
This synthpop album was definitely one of the albums I gave a repeat listen to and on the tight time schedule I was on to listen to everything, that was saying something. I liked that this album sounded like ti could have been released during the gold era of new wave and synthpop but it still sounded 2011 fresh. That seems to be a tough needle to thread for many of these synth, electro, new wave, no wave-inspired new school acts but Miracle Fortress managed it adroitly.
Download Miracle Fortress Raw Spectacle [MP3]
Download Miracle Fortress Miscalculations [MP3]
HIt the jump for a couple of bonus remixes by Diamond Rings and Pantha du Prince:
A Look at the Polaris Long List: 23. Malajube – La Caverne
Are Malajube the Montreal answer to Phoenix? Ironically, Phoenix is the group from France but Malajube are the group that sings in French (though being from Quebec, that’s obviously not that strange). Wonder if they’ll ever switch to English lyrics in a bid to cross-over? I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying (which, after years of high school and college French and a short stint in Nice even taking some language classes, is truly sad!) but this was a pretty good album!