Gary's Braids Review

Oh Braids, you poor things. A solid little album that suffers from being reviewed late in the process. I won’t deny that I’m suffering from a little reviewer exhaustion, but let’s be fair - this album did nothing to change that.

Native Speaker is a meandering, atmospheric album that talks a lot but never really gets to the point. With only 7 songs you might have assumed they would be adept at narrowing their focus. But when you see most songs run in the area of 7-8 minutes long, you start to understand why this album ends up being...well...boring.

Sure it’s beautiful and soaring and Raphaelle Standell-Preston’s voice is gorgeous. Hell, the music itself is inventive and ear catching - for 2 or 3 minutes. But if you haven’t said what you need to after 5 or 6 minutes, you’d better bring something pretty epic to the table.

I know what you’re thinking - who am I to dictate how long or short a song should be, and generally I don’t have a problem with long-form songs. But if you go back and check out the best musical tomes, they have a way of keeping things fresh and vibrant for the duration - something Braids just doesn't do.

Tracks like Same Mum and Plath Heart start out with the greatest of intentions and sound great, but then end up falling flat. Like a J.K. Rowling book this album would have benefited greatly from an editor (or more ruthless producer).

So yes I feel bad that Braids fell in the order where it did, but I doubt the review would have been all that different had it been slotted as the first or second album. And against meatier pieces from Arcade Fire and Hey! Rosetta, it frankly never stood a chance.

Bon Chance.

Ryan's Galaxie review

I've started noticing this pattern when it comes to the Polaris shortlist, now that we've been posting to this blog for a few years. First is that there's always one French band that makes the shortlist. If Iwere a far more cynical person, I would chalk that up to an unspoken quota system on behalf of the organizers, but I know that's not actually the case. From a technical standpoint it would be difficult to game the system in that way; more importantly, I think that it would work completely against what the organizers of the prize are trying to accomplish, so they'd have no reason to do so. It's an interesting coincidence, is all I'm saying.

Another part of this pattern is that the one French band always puts out an album that's absolutely fascinating. The shortlist on a whole is always an eclectic group, of course, but that French band always seems to stand apart from the others (and not just due to the language barrier).

We're not here to talk about patterns, though, were here to talk about Montreal's own Galaxie, and their incredible album Tigre et Diesel. It's a short album (if memory serves, the shortest one this year), but it's also an intense one – Galaxie seems to know going in that their time is limited, so they don't want to waste a single second and bring the rock as quickly as they can. That intensity really works to the album's advantage – it grabs you and drags you out onto the metaphorical dancefloor, letting you lose yourself in the screaming guitars and electronic beats. In a longer album I think this intensity would become either overwhelming or tiring, but it works excellently here.

I won't go so far as to say that this is my favourite album of the year, but it's up there for sure.

Dave's Galaxie Review

GALAXIE – Tigre et diesel

I have no idea what Galaxie are singing about on this album - but I like the way it sounds. There's an intense Brit-pop element but also a techno influence and for most of the album it works really well. It ebbs and flows between disco stompers and reflective ballads seamlessly.

Galaxie appears to be the red headed step-child of the Polaris Shortlist this year – accessible, poppy, and danceable – it’s hard to find that on the list, but here they are, and they fit. As Gary mentioned – they are Primal Scream almost more than Primal Scream.

For me, there is a huge language barrier, I can catch phrases and words but I’m not a fluent speaker of French so context is lost on me but I get the jist - which sucks for me when I want the whole picture.

There is nothing outstanding for me about this album, but it’s really good. I think it’s solid and fits in nicely amongst the shortlist, but at the end of the day it feels middle of the road. It stands out but for me it's not as much of a frontrunner as other noms are. The album is still fun, but I don't know if I'll look back and still like this album as much this time next year.

KEY TRACKS: Piste 1, Encore, Camouflar

Gary's Galaxie Review

Holy shit - the French band did it again.

How do they keep doing it? How do they keep producing the most innovative, interesting and listenable music of the past four or five years?

Malajube blew my mind a few years back and then Karkwa was more than good enough to win the Polaris Prize last year. And now this bouncing explosion of ‘fuck-yeah’ energy from Galaxie - Tigre et Diesel.

And what a ride it is. Dance floor stompers, to dirty disco-chic to folk-rock love songs. It sounds frenetic and disconnected - and it is, but it works and frankly, I’m still trying to figure out how.

I mean, who would dream of incorporating the rock’n’roll swagger of say a Primal Scream with the thumping electronica of a Daft Punk? I guess these Montrealers would....and did.

I only wish I had a better grasp of the language so I could catch what frontman Fred Fortin was saying because with music this winking and clever, surely the lyrics are equally sly. That said, you definitely don’t need French lessons to dance along.

I think my favourite part about this competition is that something so big and raunchy is nestled amongst some pretty weighty projects. Like inviting Russell Brand to your country club - it’s sure to elicit some raised eyebrows. But this is what music should sound like more often - full of swagger, hedonism and straight-up fun.

I wouldn’t be shocked if this year’s Polaris Prize got handed out to yet another talented band francias. But even if it doesn't, this album stands out from the rest.

Stand Out Tracks - Piste 1, Encore

Gary's Timber Timbre Review

Creep On Creepin’ On starts as it means to go on. From the Dr Dre-esque piano and drums of Bad Ritual through to the closer Souvenirs, Timber Timbre’s album exudes an eerie, horror-movie sense of uneasiness that you just can’t shake.

The vocals drip with reverb, the drums shuffle along like a villain trailing the heroin, and the atmospheric instrumentals are bound to disturb your sleep. And yet, it’s not like this album is hard to listen to.

In fact, in an ironic twist, this is the mood and setting I feel like Colin Stetson was aiming for on his album and ultimately didn’t achieve.

Not to say this album is groundbreaking. A lot of these elements were well explored on albums like Dark Night of the Soul (the product of DJ Danger Mouse and David Lynch) or even Ryan Gosling’s Dead Man’s Bones. All share the creepy church revival sway and cinematic intensity - Timber Timbre’s however, does approach it an a uniquely Canadian way.

However the lumbering beats and piano do start to run together after a while and you start to wonder if you’ve heard this song before. It’s a great album, but maybe too much of a good thing.

So while Creep On Creepin’ On does feel a little one note, I still really dig the idea behind Timber Timbre’s log cabin recording. Like some kind of evil Justin Vernon - Mal Iver perhaps?

Ryan's Timber Timbre Review

There was this guy I knew in university who was a good guy, but was not the most intellectual of fellows. We had a couple of classes together, including, to my surprise, a philosophy class. The class was a struggle for him, and I ended up helping him study for his tests to help him pass the class. During one of those study sessions, I ended up asking him why he was taking a philosophy class in the first place, and he told me "Well, it's not that I care about philosophy; it's just that I thought I'd learn a bunch of impressive quotes to use in essays and stuff."

Listening to Timber Timbre's Creep On Creepin' On, I was strongly reminded of that sentiment expressed in that story - that it's okay to want just the high points, rather than wanting to understand the structure that lies beneath them. From the first time I listened to it, I had a feeling that I liked the album, and when I tried to articulate why I was left quoting individual lines from songs, like "I found depravity convinced me I may no longer care" and "The ectoplasm coiled like a hovering halo of smoke, and our beloved invention is conjured each night in your throat". And don't get me wrong - those individual lines are beautiful works of poetry. What I found limiting about the album, though, was that those individual lines seemed to exist in isolation; there was nothing that seemed to link them to a grander tableau or narrative, and the music of the album, while enjoyable in a chill, low-key sense, did nothing to provide a meaningful context for them to exist in either.

Overall, I'd say this was a fairly enjoyable album. If I were listening to my stereo and it came on, I wouldn't turn it off. But it lacks that special something I've come to expect from shortlisted albums, and that lack of cohesiveness of the lyrical highpoints with the rest of the album ends up as a distraction that takes away from the songs.

Dave's Timbre Timbre Review

Timbre Timbre – Creep on Creepin’ On


As the summer whips by and the days shorten, and sunsets across our nations become more spectacular Timbre Timbre’s album fits the mellowness in the air perfectly.

Cinematic and haunting the album draws you in with stark musical landscape but Taylor Kirk’s voice is the centre piece of everything. It’s deep, emotive and pushes the listener inside the album. And once you’re in, you’re in.

Just the sentiment on this album is enough to scare the pants off of a hardened criminal. Murderous and mad, Taylor embodies the mystique of what a front man should be. Images of Leonard Cohen and Nick Cave come to mind when you imagine this album being written, Taylor hunched over a desk, scotch on the desk, paper littered across the room, notes and doodles – truly a creative situation if there has ever been one.

Then he creeps through the album, stalking his listener, and truly trapping us like the prey he so desires – but you can’t trap the willing can you.

KEY TRACKS: Bad Ritual, Too Old to Die Young, Do I Have Power

CLINCHER: Creep On, Creepin’ On

Ryan's Colin Stetson Review

I'm absolutely fascinated by Rorschach tests. You're probably familiar with the concept, if not with the name: the Rorschach is a psychological test that involves showing someone a series of inkblots and having them identify images within them. The idea behind the test is that the images that people see reveal things about their personality or mental health; what's crucial about them, though, is that the blots don't have any intrinsic meaning. What's important is how people react to them.

It took a full week of listening to the album to realize it, but that's what Colin Stetson's New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges is: an auditory Rorschach test. There's an argument that that's what all art is, to an extent, but I think this album more fully encapsulates that idea than most, if not all. As one listens to it, they take the scattered horns, haunting spoken-word poetry, and barely audible strings, and desperately try to attach meaning to it. They'll reach different conclusions while doing so, of course. Some might see Stetson as a decadent charlatan, while others might admire him for being brash and audacious in his musical creation. Some might even think, as I briefly did, that he's using the album to audition to be the house band of a post-apocalyptic wasteland.

The brilliance of this album - and let's be clear, I do think it's brilliant - is that you can't even argue that any of those perspectives are wrong. the album is so sparse, so minimalist, that it is entirely what the listener wants it to b. It's democracy in art. The end result is not one of those albums that I'm going to listen to regularly - in fact, I don't know if I'll ever give it another spin now that I'm finished reviewing it. Listening to it was a great, challenging experience, though, and I'm very glad that I did.

Standout track: A Dream of Water

Dave's Colin Stetson Review

I listened to this record once and thought – this is, um, not for me. Then I said to my self: “Self, open you’re mind, relax and listen, just don’t hear it.” Once I did that the world that Colin Stetson has created with his saxophone opened up to me and I began to appreciate the performance, the intention, and the execution of both those elements into one.

New History of Warfare – Judges Vol. 2 is not an album that can be listened to just anywhere; for me it is a record that has to be listened to in the right environment. Listening to it while racing around on the 400 series highways of Ontario in a downpour – wasn’t the best idea. However, plugging it in while sipping a cold ale on the porch of the cottage – that’s where it becomes a record that makes a little more sense. The harsh sounds of the sax, jolting up and down the register, the tapping and pounding of the percussion elements fill the air. There is no room for other sounds, or other thoughts to enter.

What is remarkable about Colin Stetson’s performance on this record is he did most of them in one take, live, in a studio by himself. Think about that for a second…got it? Now think back to when you had to do anything by yourself that required you to focus, evaluate, and then trust yourself and you’re ability so much that you can move onwards without so much as looking back. But that is the exact energy on this album – it races forward, with an avant-garde sound, skillfully telling a story, using music as the voice, and dictating listeners emotion.

All that being said, this is not the record for everyone – certainly it’s not my favourite record of the year, but I respect the process and the art, but I don’t always get it.

KEY TRACKS: Home, All the Colours Bleached to White, Judges

CLINCHER: A DREAM OF WATER

Gary's Colin Stetson Review

Halfway through my first listen I couldn’t decide whether to applaud Colin Stetson for his frenetic, insane and unique sounds or pass it off as art rock garbage. If David Lynch had some kind of deep obsession with brass instruments I have to imagine that this would be the album he’d create.

Stetson’s New History Warfare - Judges Vol. 2 is literally a cacophony of sax and trumpet samples looped endlessly in an anxious swirl. There’s virtually no discernable structure or form to the songs other than the repetitive (and ultimately grating) unmelodic loops.

The usual art project staples pepper the whole album.

Nonsensical spoken word pieces? Check.

Complete absence of drums or rhythm? Check.

Eventual onset of boredom? Check.

I clearly didn’t get what Stetson set out to do with this album as my patience waned with each listen. With the exception of the cover And I Just Can’t Keep From Crying, with an actual, honest to goodness vocal melody (delivered hauntingly by Shara Worden) I took almost nothing away from this album.

I’m positive there are people who will listen to this album track by track and appreciate its uniqueness, but I’m not one of them.

Good for Stetson for trying something completely new. Bad for listeners who are looking for songs.

Ryan's Weeknd Review

I was hoping to like this album. Liking it would have been a victory for me.

Allow me to backtrack a bit to explain what I mean there. There was, a decade ago, a pop-punk band from London called The Weekend. I was a fan: saw them live a few times, owned all their albums, even had a bit of a crush on their lead singer. So, when I heard The Weekend were shortlisted for Polaris this year, I was confused and excited, because that band broke up years ago and I hadn't heard anything about a reunion.

The Weeknd is definitely not The Weekend, however. This is, of course, not his fault, and that's why I wanted to like the album. If I disliked it there would always be this question hanging over me of whether I disliked it on its own merits, or if I was just subconsciously bitter about it sounding nothing like a pop-punk band from London. You can see my dilemma here.

So, to prove I'm not just a bitter old man fueled by nostalgia, let me start with some positives: this is a very technically proficient album. There's no denying that Abel Tesfaye, the man behind this album, is a talented singer who's capable of constructing some solid beats.

There's a wide gulf between technical proficiency and creating something great, though, and while The Weeknd might excel at the former, for me he completely failed at the latter. There's this sense of detachment between Weeknd and the lyrics he's singing, and likewise between the lyrics and the music, that stays unresolved and unexplained throughout the course of the album. At no point throughout the album did it seem to me that he cared about the music he was making – and if he can't be passionate about it, how am I as a listener supposed to be passionate about it? That's a question that House of Balloons seems unable to answer.

Dave's The Weeknd Review

A House of Balloons is so many things – fragile for one, they can easily to burst I would imagine. But the other side of the coin is they are full of fun, bounce, bright colours, youthfulness and joy. Eventually though it has to go away – the balloons will either deflate of burst – either way it will never last.

The Weeknd’s album House of Balloons captures this essence perfectly – it’s a moment in time in one’s life, where everything is great – life is the party the movies promised you – but there are consequences and kudos to The Weeknd for not avoiding these, or letting them become the dominate dark themes of his album.

What hit me about this album from the get go, was this: it’s panty dropper record (don’t get me wrong there are some great panty dropping tracks on here) But it’s really more than that. The Weeknd not only looks at the party and the after party but he explores the emotions after the party, when the sins have been committed and the scars are left to be nursed. I know this has been done before, but for me this seems so poignant now – with the world of Jersey Shore and Real World: Vegas. Culture isn’t seeing the consequences, just the party a lot of the time. Just like the title, House of Balloons, it can all go pop at some point.


KEY TRACKS: The Party & The After Party, The Morning, Loft Music, Glass Table Girls

THE CLINCHER: Wicked Games

Gary's The Weeknd Review

Here’s basically everything you need to know about The Weeknd. After downloading his album (for free from his website), I passed it to a friend at work. Within about four or five hours 10 other people in the office were listening to House of Balloons. By the end of the day it had been shared to another 5 or so people. It’s not that The Weeknd - aka: Abel Tesfaye - is that good. It’s that he’s so good you feel compelled to tell someone about it.

What happened at work was a microcosm of what’s happening everywhere right now - The Weeknd is blowing up!

He’s the guy everyone’s talking about, he’s featured in the promos for HBO’s Entourage and not to mention garnering a lot of record label attention (is it the 90s again?) So when he drops the line “They don’t want my love, they just want my potential” (The Party and The After Party) he could easily be referring to the many interested parties circling this 20 year old prodigy.

So what’s got everybody worked up into a lather? Some pretty sick fuckin’ music that's what.

The kind of music you listen to bleary-eyed at 4am long after the party has dried up and most people have gone home. Coincidentally this is also the subject matter of about 8 of the 9 tracks on this album.

The Weeknd deliver some dark and expansive beats - beats so big they sound like they’re echoing through an empty club (a sight I’m sure he’ll never witness). One minute your reference points are Kanye circa 808s and Heartbreaks, R Kelly and even Slick Rick. But as soon as you think you have him pegged he turns around and samples Beach House and new wave punk?

Maybe The Weeknd is a series of contradictions or maybe he just doesn’t give a shit about the musical conventions most of us live by and expect. Maybe at 20 years old he just doesn’t know better.

And while you might a expect a young man to get caught in a rut, it’s not all darkness, drugs and dirty sex. There’s some bouncier beats and tracks, like The Morning and Loft Music, the latter in which Tesfaye really puts on a verbal show somehow managing to wrap his silky smooth voice around some rough and nasty lyrics.

But that’s sort of his trick, On first listen you marvel at the vocal gymnastics, the sinister beats and uniqueness of the sound. But by the second and third listen, you really take in his lyrics and can’t decide whether your a little shocked or oddly titillated.

Either way the safest thing I can say is that you’ll definitely be hearing a lot more from The Weeknd whether he’s your Polaris Winner or not.

Standout Tracks - House of Ballons - Glass Table Girls, Loft Music, High For This