Fresh off the heels of a Grey Cup the Prime Minister will never forget, Toronto-based music blog Snob's Music has released its list of the 50 Greatest Albums of the Deace to be released north of the border. Our nothern neighbors have released some of the finest indie rock albums this decade (I guess free health insurance makes artistic risk easier to manage), and the list contains a heavy dosage of Arcade Fire, Feist, Tegan and Sara, and Broken Social Scene:
50. Soft Airplane- Chad VanGaalen 49. Missiles- The Dears 48. Down at the Khyber- Joel Plaskett 47. The Besnard Lakes Are the Dark Horse- The Besnard Lakes 46. Sounding a Mosaic- Bedouin Soundclash 45. Goddess- Emm Gryner 44. The Beat Stuff- Hannah Georgas 43. New Seasons- The Sadies 42. In the Future- Black Mountain 41. Arm's Way- Islands 40. Back To Me- Kathleen Edwards 39. He Poos Clouds- Final Fantasy 38. Close to Paradise- Patrick Watson 37. Live It Out- Metric 36. Apologies to the Queen Mary- Wolf Parade 35. Reconstruction Site- The Weakerthans 34. Ongiara- Great Lake Swimmers 33. Are We Not Horses?- Rock Plaza Central 32. Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene 31. Situtation- Buck 65 30. Five Dollar Bill- Corb Lund 29. LP- Holy Fuck 28. Honey from the Tombs- Amy Millan 27. Evil Dead: The Musical- Original Cast Recording 26. Twin Cinema- New Pornographers 25. You Forget It In People- Broken Social Scene 24. Andorra- Caribou 23. Make Up the Breakdown- Hot Hot Heat 22. Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?- Metric 21. I Know You're Married, But I've Got Feelings Too- Martha Wainwright 20. So Jealous- Tegan & Sara 19. Library Voices EP- Library Voices 18. Beast- Beast 17. Neon Bible- Arcade Fire 16. Lost Channels- Great Lake Swimmers 15. Hair In My Eyes Like a Highland Steer- Corb Lund 14. You're a Woman, I'm a Machine- Death From Above 1979 13. Elephant Shell- Tokyo Police Club 12. Dead Man's Bones- Dead Man's Bones 11. The Con- Tegan & Sara 10. The Reminder- Feist 9. Set Yourself On Fire- Stars 8. No Cities Left- The Dears 7. At the Moment of Our Most Needing...- Rock Plaza Central 6. Going Steady- Rah Rah 5. Face Control- Handsome Furs 4. Funeral- Arcade Fire 3. Outside Love- Pink Mountaintops 2. Mass Romantic- New Pornographers 1. Let It Die- Feist
Before you get all uppity about albums not on the list (Fucked Up, Sloan, and Japandroids are all notably absent), keep in mind that "indie rock" in Canada means avoiding the Tragically Hip and Celine Dion rather than Beyonce or Fiddy. Either way, it's hard to argue with how awesome most of these releases are.
Sloan are kinda crap. I'd include Kevin Drew solo. That DFA 1979 album is awesome. My favorite New Porno record is Electric Version, which seems to be everyone else's least favorite.
32. Broken Social Scene- Broken Social Scene
Arcade Fire »
Feist »
The New Pornographers »
50 spots and not a single release from Constellation records? FAIL.