When I first started playing this, I thought it sounded way too ‘girly’ and not for me but I let it ride and it grew on me. I actually ended up talking about it during my appearance on the soon-come ‘What I Call Music’ podcast but I apologize in advance because I think I mangled their name and called them the Lubayas or something crazy like that! Hey, that’s what happens when you have to listen to 20+ albums you’ve never heard before and render an essentially snap judgment about them for a creative awards contest. Not sure why we barely had a week to list to all the Long List nominees, a week which also included NXNE which many jurors were running around attending, when the Polaris event is not until September, but such is life.
Honestly, couldn’t remember this one from when I played it during my Short List voting considerations and I didn’t even write any notes about it either. That’s generally not a good sign but returning to it now to write this post, it’s actually not bad. Agree?
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
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]
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.