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the july playlist
last month, i made a playlist, wrote about it, and then it got put in the newspaper. (i have no idea why they let me do that, but i ain’t complainin’!). so here’s a new playlist, this time for the month of july 2024. as before, these are all songs i heard for the first…
The Polaris Project – July 17, 2024 (callin’ it a year)
because i now write about arts and culture as my job, this had the simultaneous effect of scratching the ol’ “criticism itch” that this project used to do and sapping any residual motivation i might have put toward listening to and reviewing all 40 o’ these things. and now that the Polaris short list’s been…
2024 Winnipeg Folk Festival – Highlights + Miscellany
FAVOURITE WORKSHOPS FAVOURITE CONCERTS honourable mention: Lucinda Williams (Main Stage, Thursday) AN ARBITRARY SELECTION OF QUOTES We have a couple of guys with us from Nashville and, as we were checking in to the Fairmont, they asked where they could go to buy groceries. So their first experience of Winnipeg was walking through the tunnels…
The Polaris Project – June 17-30
idk if i’m going to get through all 40 of these. i’m running out of steam and i’m not sure if i care that much about this idea anymore. we’ll see. Homecoming Queen by Devours electropop that sorta sounds like post-Carrie-&-Lowell Sufjan Stevens with the “overt homosexuality” dial turned up by half a notch. unfortunately,…
The Polaris Project – June 12-15, 2024
hey, it’s me again. doing the thing where i review all 40 Polaris Music Prize longlist nominees for the fourth year in a row. i may as well, right? my life is a bore and all of its attendant tasks feel like pointless drudgery, but it’s good to have a project on the go, i…
maggie’s 13 favourite albums of 2023
Ranking my favourite albums of the year is always a tricky task, but it’s one I insist on assigning to myself every December. This is, ostensibly, an exercise I undertake because it’s “fun.” But is it? Am I having fun right now, or am I simply acting out of habit? Does it make any sense…
The Polaris Project – July 4, 2023
after taking a week-and-a-half to work through the third batch of albums, i decided to fire off the last ten all in the same day. i am so fucking good at music criticism!! Colder Streams by The Sadies i’ve seen these guys at Folk Fest a few times and thought they were simply “OK” each…
The Polaris Project – June 22 – July 3, 2023
it’s been a while. back to the grind! Once Upon a Time in Montréal by Murray A. Lightburn this album was a great choice for my June 22, 2023 walk to work! Lightburn’s softly sung-spoken vocals and the warmth of the orchestral jazz-rock instrumentation (of which the strings were especially pleasant!) combined quite nicely with…
The Polaris Project – June 16-21, 2023
Never Enough by Daniel Caesar due to “having heard good things,” i’ve been meaning to check out this guy’s stuff for a while, so allow me to say: pretty good! i can see the appeal! this is just what i needed to hear on the morning of friday, june 16, 2023 – low-to-midtempo R&B ballads…
The Polaris Project – June 13-15, 2023
it’s that time of year again! wasn’t entirely sure i wanted to do this a third time. i feel like i’ve already exhausted everything i can think of to say about music, but i’ll try to produce at least one novel observation across the 40 albums to follow. can she do it? you’ll just have…
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ruminations of a sad oaf. 