Owen Pallett

REVIEW: Polaris Cover Sessions No. 2 feat. Arkells, Joel Plaskett & Zaki Ibrahim (2016 10″ EP)

POLARIS COVER SESSIONS No. 2 (2016 coloured 10″ EP, CBC Music)

Collecting Arkells odds & ends on physical formats is an expensive prospect.  This cool 10″ EP features the Hamilton band, along with Nova Scotia’s Joel Plaskett and Toronto’s Zaki Ibrahim.  The three artists cover Canadian songs on this EP, from artists both famed and obscure.  It is a beautiful transparent blue EP, with a basic cover design.  The names of the featured artists are on the front, with the names of the artsists covered on the back.  The tracklist and credits are inside, on a coloured insert.  More on that in a minute.

Here is a breakdown of the tracks.

 

ARKELLS – “I’m Not Afraid”

Mississauga’s Owen Pallett has a career going back over two decades, previously under the name Final Fantasy.  They play violin and other instruments.  Here’ the Arkells cover of a tune called “I’m Not Afraid”, a powerful tune taking full advantage of their instrumental prowess.  Augmented by a sax section, the song opens with a synthesizer drone, and then a pulsing bassline over it.  It starts off tense and sparse, and takes a little while to launch as the arrangement slowly builds.  It explodes 90 seconds in, with singer Max Kerman breaking into a falsetto on the chorus.  The sax-soaked tune really flies at this point, propelled by drummer Tim Oxford, the engine of the Arkells.  The best word to describe this song is simple – it really cooks.

JOEL PLASKETT – “Bittersweet Memories”

Calgary’s Leslie Feist is better known on the world stage simply as Feist.  Joel Plaskett chose “Bittersweet Memories” to cover.  Plaskett plays everything but the Rhodes keys (by Erin Costelo).  Like Kerman before, he breaks into falsetto at times, but this gentle ballad has a steady beat and a vintage 70s easy listening vibe.  It’s an excellent song, with lyrics that paint a picture.  Here’s the main thing:  Feist really knows how to write a song, and Joel’s no slouch on everything he plays!

ZAKI IBRAHIM – “Show Me the Place”

The final artist to get the cover treatment is the legendary Leonard Cohen.  Zaki Ibrahim chose a song of recent vintage, “Show Me the Place” from 2012’s Old Ideas.  There’s a very low-key and soulful arrangement featuring piano, synth, drum programs and cello.  Though all of this forms a cloudy-yet-vivid atmosphere, it is Ibrahim’s vocals that really make it shine.  Her layered vocals on the chorus sound are stirring and foreboding.  It’s an incredible vocal performance in totality, featuring both restraint and expression.  This is easily an EP highlight.

Here’s the amusing thing about this EP.  There is obvious care put into both the music and the detailed sleeve notes, but they got the track listing wrong.  They switched the Arkells and Plaskett tracks.  In reality, Arkells are on side A, and Plaskett and Ibrahim are on side B.  The sleeve notes are repeated on both sides of the insert, French and English, and both are wrong.  It makes sense for the Arkells track to occupy an entire side by itself, since it is the longest at 5:19.  Funny how these mistakes get made.  The actual label on the record is correct.

A very enjoyable EP, with tracks that should be cherished by fans of all three artists.

4/5 stars

 

 

ARKELLS

  1. Jackson Square (2008)
  2. Michigan Left (2011)
  3. High Noon (2014)
  4. Morning Report (2017)
  5. Rally Cry (2018)
  6. Campfire Chords (2020)
  7. Blink Once (2021)
  8. Blink Twice (2022)
  9. Laundry Pile (2023)
  10. Disco Loadout Volume One (2024)

…and more to come