Between now and June 25, when I have to cast my second ballot for this year's Polaris Prize, I will be listening to and remarking on albums that I hadn't checked out or given a fair shake before the Long List came out.

This weekend, I drove up to Edmonton for a Research Symposium at the U of A (First prize! Yeah!) so I had plenty of time to listen to music while counting sets of truck nutz and large inflatable Big Rock cans in farmers' fields (is this new?)

On the way up, I checked out:

• Tortoise, Beacons of Ancestorship: watch for a review in this week's issue,
• Fiery Furnaces, I'm Going Away: so good, as always... I especially love track #9.

... and I also listened to my interview with Phil Elvrum of Mount Eerie (!!) so I could transcribe the good bits and write a story later that day.

Anyways, on the way home I made some time for some Polaris listening.

k-os : YES!

This one was actually really good! The beats aren't extremely creative and I'd kind of like to put it through that algorithm somebody pointed out a few months ago that figures out if music has been generated using a drum machine. BUT! It's friggin catchy, you guys. I probably enjoyed it more than any other record on the drive home. My ballot is due in 2 days, but if I come back to it again and I enjoy it as much as the first time through, I'm surprised to say it might end up squeaking in at #5. WEIRD!

Jill Barber - CHANCES

This album is so not my thing. I don't even know what to call it. Is it jazz? Lounge? I don't know. I turned it off after 3 songs, I was so bored. Sorry Jill.

Lhasa - S/T

Peter H. is a big fan of this one, so I especially wanted to give it a fair shake. It was pretty mellow, but tolerably so considering the fact that I needed to stay awake and alert for the drive. Her voice is definitely front-and-centre and the instrumentation is pretty subtle, but it works fairly well. Unfortunately, I was really turned off by track #10, where she seems to intentionally sing out of tune or beyond her range (on the low end) or something. Good but not great.

Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country

For whatever reason, this album has not crossed my radar at all and when I threw it on, I was fully prepared for a country album. Because, you know, it has the word "country" in the title. Boy, was I ever wrong. It's this wankitty-ass ambient electric guitar plucking stuff that doesn't interest me at all. I skipped a few tracks to try to find something good, but nothing caught my ear. Sorry Tim. Maybe make a country record next time, buddy.

Woodpidgeon - Treasury Library Canada

I had definitely given this one some time earlier in the year, but to be honest I never thought it would make the Long List so I felt like it might be a good album to revisit. It has a very nice, mellow Sufjan-meets-recent Blitzen Trapper thing going on and, while it's a bit over the top on the "precious" meter at times for my personal tastes, it's a remarkably tight, well-produced album. I don't think I'll vote for it, but I'm thinking it might be a strong dark-horse candidate to be shortlisted.

la Patère Rose - S/T

I gave this one another spin because it impressed me so much last week. I still think it's good, but I suspect the reason why I liked it so much is that the last song kicks so much ass. I'm a sucker for a good closer, but the second listen made it pretty obvious that the strong points are more than counter-balanced by some blandness midway through. We'll see...

On Deck, more second-time listens: Elliott Brood, Great Lake Swimmers, Land of Talk, Metric