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!]
