The dedicated group of writers at Music-Critic.ca have compiled their lists – each one has picked their five favourite records of 2011, and selected the one the proved to be their biggest disappointment. As usual, the diversity of the choices is staggering.
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Kevin Hartford |
Old Ideas is aptly named. It has all the elements you’d expect from a Leonard Cohen record: lyrics about sex and mortality and religion, cooing female backup vocalists, sparse, piano-heavy instrumentation, and Cohen’s trademark chainsmoker grumble speak-singing from beginning to end. » Read More
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Cam Hoff |
As the frontman of The Hold Steady, Craig Finn is the cilantro of the indie music scene – people seem to either love his brand of talky/shouty vocals or just don’t care for it at all. » Read More
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Rating: 3.5 / 5 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Rock and roll is often the domain of the young, and when the old try to inhabit it, they can come off looking desperate or, worse yet, clueless. Then there are some older bands who come along and show the kids how its done. Imperial Teen is one of those bands » Read More
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
Johanna and Klara Soderberg are First Aid Kit, a prodigious sister duo being hailed as the next great addition to the retro Americana movement currently housed by the likes of Fleet Foxes and others. » Read More
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Rating: 3 / 5 Reviewer: Trent Depue |
For Paolo is the latest effort from Calgary’s Woodpigeon, and for it, the listeners get everything they would expect from the harmony-rich band. The flip side to that coin is that they don’t really get anything they wouldn’t expect either. » Read More
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Rating: 2.5 / 5 Reviewer: Nathan Atnikov |
For those who have followed Ani Difranco’s career up to this point – 22 years and 16 studio albums – nothing will come as much of a surprise on Which Side Are You On? » Read More
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Rating: 4 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy |
Only John K. Samson, Canada’s punk poet laureate, would title a song ‘Longitudinal Centre’. Longitudinal is not a word oft thrown around in pop music. Much of what Samson can and does do lyrically is not oft thrown around in pop music. Samson is, arguably, Canada’s best lyricist and Provincial is proof. » Read More
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Rating: 4.5 / 5 Reviewer: Michelle Kennedy |
Let’s just say it, get it out in the open, so then we can just realize that it is absolutely irrelevant and move on: Kathleen Edwards is dating Bon Iver front man Justin Vernon. We good? Ok! Moving on… » Read More
