On September 24th....Feist Won the 2012 Polaris Prize for her 2011 Album "Metals". I have my own opinion on this which I am about to express. There have been some mixed reactions to Feist winning....and from what I have followed on Twitter, Facebook, and several internet news articles, I wonder if everyone truly understands what the Polaris Prize is all about when they are posting these comments.
The Polaris prize may or may not be something you are aware of each year.....I'm guessing it would be tied to how involved you are in the Canadian music scene. If your idea of keeping up on current music is tuning into corporate radio and listing to the the weekly top 5 at 5, chances are you aren't aware of what is going on. I'm not bashing corporate radio with this paragraph.......but I am acknowledging that corporate radio's idea of "new music" is generally the most recent bands that they are allowed to play by their sponsors. That could be an album release 5 years ago.....or one that isn't yet released.
Beginning in 2006, the Polaris Prize was meant to recognize the best Canadian Album released in the previous year. Remember what I just said....."Best Canadian Album", not artist. I'll reference this later in the post. The Polaris Group Board of Directors selects 200 "Jurors". These Jurors are Bloggers, Journalists, Broadcasters, etc, and no Juror is allowed to have any financial link to any artist. Each Juror picks what they believe to be the best 5 albums released in the previous year.....and based on a points system, (5 for top pick, 4 for second, etc), a list of 40 albums is selected and released to the public. Then the Jurors pick their top 5 from this list....points are awarded, and the list is narrowed to a "Long List" of 10. The top 10 bands perform at a Gala in Toronto in September for 11 of the Jury members, known as the "Grand jury".
There you have it..........a system to ensure impartial selection of the best Canada has to offer each year. Sounds great doesn't it? Well.....there are still many who wonder how an artist like Feist could have won.....as though she is too big of a star and that this Polaris thingy has become a popularity contest. One thing I will stress is that Polaris is not meant to be confined to "Underground", "Indie", or artists that "need the help". There isn't a maximum income requirement. The Prize is open to any Canadian musician. If those 200 Jurors somehow feel that Celine Dion belongs in the top 40, then her record would go into the pool. (God Help Us).
So lets talk finally about Leslie Feist. I became a Feist fan through her involvement in Broken Social Scene, just as many Canadians did. I already knew who she was, I had seen her perform as part of the band "By Divine Right" at a music festival in Hamilton in 2000. Her involvement in Broken Social Scene years later, however, was what made me take notice. The delicate yet powerful voice jumped from my speakers and I couldn't help but notice the sexy silhouette jumping about in the "Almost Crimes" video. For those who only later knew of Feist as the girl from the iPod commercial, they may not realize the sacrifices she made leaving By Divine Right to focus on a solo career.......travelling all over the world attempting to carve her own identity, only to find greater success back in a collective band as a featured singer. When I finally purchased "Let it Die", the genius of her solo work became quite clear, and then looking back to "Monarch", and forward to "The Reminder" confirmed what I already suspected. This girl has the battle scars from the road, the chops both vocally and on the guitar.....and she can write one hell of a hook.
"Metals" feels like a bit of a departure for Feist, almost a back to basics, or the way you get to know yourself again after a break-up. There are no jump out radio singles on the record like "Mushaboom", "One Evening", "1234", or "Feel it All". Therefore, I found myself listening to the album in the background rather than blasting hits in the car as part of a playlist. This revealed to me the beauty of Metals as a complete work of art, front to back. The production is very transparent. Instruments are captured as though you are sitting in the room and feeling the pulse of the bass or the thud of the bass drum from the floor. The acoustic guitar on "The Bad in Each Other" has a tone and timbre that every engineer dreams about hearing through their studio monitors. Some of these elements may have been derived by the fact that Feist chose Big Sur, California as the place to lay down the record. Or the fact that rather than a slick studio, they brought gear to a cliffside home and lived and worked as one. The result is a record that is not trying to please you, but rather a record that invites you in to stay a while.
I wouldn't single out any artist in the top 10 as not deserving a win unless I had thoroughly listened to the album and compared. I certainly hope that those who are criticizing the Feist win aren't basing this on whether or not they liked her in the iPod commercial. I hope that they gave Metals a solid listen and it didn't prove its worth. Bottom line.....there is no musical conspiracy with Polaris once you understand what it is all about. I'm glad we live in a country where one of our Musical Stars still has their feet firmly on the ground.
I'll leave you all with a track from Metals, performed live on Jools Holland.
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