The Album under review is the collection: Oh! Canada Volume 12 {available for free download from The Line of Best Fit}. When I first examined the track listing, I recognized a couple of Polaris shortlist nominees {Shad and Radio Radio}. This was the deciding factor to click “Download”. I am beyond happy that I got this sweet collection. The collection’s greatest strength is it’s diversity. The collection showcases some of the many genres which are readily-growing within Canada. Oh! Canada explores some great hip-hop tracks which have free flowing, meaningful verses. Hip-hop may be dying in the mainstream states but Grand Analog, Shad, and SJ The Wordburglar are keeping it alive in the Canadian indie scene.
A lot of the collection’s songs have some folk aspect to them. Including the modern-folk sound of The Mountains and The Trees who showcase expert vocals and soulful lyrics as they deliver the cute love song “Minimum Wage Lovers”. Other folky artists on the collection include, Sarah Harmer, Bird & Bear, and Lisa Bozikovic. The collection is by no means limited to folk and rap, there is a good chunk of more upbeat songs like “Guess What?” by Radio Radio, or “Ice Truck Killer” by Mardeen who sound like Canada’s response to The Kooks. There was also a genre on the album which I had no idea existed. TLOBF inserted a six minute experimental jazz/indie-pop/dance/awesome, song by John Kameel Farah at the beginning of the collection. It is just one of the coolest new sounds I have heard.
Overall the collection is just so quick to provide such a wide variety of genres. It brings in so many great artists with so many different sounds together. This is by far one of the best collections I have listened to! Check it out for free kiddies. Just click on the picture below.
Click for the download
Track Listing
1. John Kameel Farah: ‘Crystalline’
2. Grand Analog: ‘I Play My Kazoo’
3. Shad: ’Yaa I Get It’
4. Ten Kens: ’Screaming Viking’
5. Kill The Lights: ’Lleggs’
6. Mardeen: ’Ice Truck Killer’
7. Courtney Wing: ’Chances’
8. The Provincial Archive: ’Weight and Sea’
9. Raised By Swans: ’Hail Of Arrows’
10. Les Jupes: ’Mathematics’
11. Radio Radio: ’Guess What?’
12. SJ The Wordburglar: ’The WB’
13. Lisa Bozikovic: ’Take and Take’
14. Sarah Harmer: ’Captive (Acoustic Version)’
15. Bird & Bear: ’Bird & Bear’
16. Ben Rogers: ’Criminals’
17. The Mountains and The Trees: ’Minimum Wage Lovers’
18. Jasper Sloan Yip: ’The Path Of Least Resistance (live at CBC)’
19. Women: ’Eyesore’
Tags: Ben Rogers, Bird & Bear, Canada, Courtney Wing, Grand Analog, Halifax, Jasper Sloan Yip, John Kameel Farah, Kill The Lights, Les Jupes, Lisa Bozikovic, Mardeen, Oh! Canada Volume 12, Radio Radio, Raised By Swans, Sarah Harmer, Seaside Mic Check, Shad, SJ The Wordburglar, Ten Kens, The Line of Best Fit, The Mountains and The Trees, Women
August 11, 2010 at 12:31 am |
Mountains and the Trees are great. Bird and Bear is also sort of another project Jon Janes from Mountains and the Trees is involved in. Lots of awesome talent coming from NFLD.