Polaris Music Prize: Where's Kevin Drew's New Record?
There's no doubt that this year's Polaris shortlist had all the good Canadian records of 2007/08 (good call on the inclusion of Two Hours Traffic, Kathleen Edwards and Basia Bulat). I am even sure the right band won (Caribou). But for a music prize that purports to choose the best Canadian album solely on the basis of artistic merit, did the judges listen to that little Kevin Drew record called Spirit If...? I'll be hard pressed to find a better sounding record than that in recent times, in and outside Canada.Listen to a stream of the entire album here. See how you feel at the end of it all.
posted by Esquirrel, yo! at 8.11.08
5 Comments:
I could not agree more. His work was suspisciously absent from the list. And I'll go one further and say he should have won the thing too.
Spirit If was a fabulous example of how Canada is saving music for us all. 'Lucky Ones' is a great lesson in modern rock and 'Gang Bang Suicide' is just a plain old beautifully written piece of music - remarkably hard to find these days unfortunately. 'Big Love' is epic and 'Backed out on the' - come on, a collaboration between J and Kev - what more could you want in an album? And that is where I think his work differs from so many others - Spirit If is in fact an album - a whole one - and it is all good work.
It seems that in the age of "the hit" and "the single", people have been conditioned to expect and accept mediocrity or less than true art. Spirit If reminds us not to give up on greatness - it's out there, you've just got to demand it, and except no substitutes. In the words of the man himself, "fight for better music."
No truer words have ever been written in the comments section of this blog. I suspect the judges were more focused on promoting new acts that need the boost. But as far as more established bands go, I personally do not see how the Weakerthans or Stars records could make this list without Spirit If being there.
wow, i have to disagree. That Kevin Drew record was not very good. like had he taken more time writing the songs rather than sanitizing the hell out of them with cheeseball production values, he may have had a chance. however that always been my issue w/ BSS or anything KD related, production is always cheesey clean soundings and the guitars sound like they are from the 80s.
God I miss your blog ... keep posting, man. You were the best god damn best MP3 blog I ever came across
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