I was very glad to get reacquainted with Rae Spoon this year. I remember interviewing him back in the day when he was a cowboy singer doing some of his first tours. His 2010 album, Love is a Hunter, still has a little of the dirt from those early records (lyrics like “You can dance with the one you came with, or you can come home with me” are pure country), but shimmers with urban electro-pop production over a solid folk base. I don’t want to make too big a deal about it, but it’s hard not to draw a parallel between Spoon and Alberta’s other LGBTQ country crooner-turned-torch singer, k.d. lang. For what it’s worth, at least one reviewer compared Love is a Hunter to Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man.
For some reason, Rae Spoon made a video for the title-track, but released a different song (album opener “Death by Elektro”) as a free download. Whatevs, that just means I get to present two awesome Rae Spoon tracks today. If I were a Polaris juror, Love is a Hunter would be my top pick for next year’s prize. The record succeeds on so many levels and carries a great emotional weight. Rae was on CBC Radio’s Q today, and is hopefully getting ready to do his annual Beyonce cover (may I suggest “Diva“?).
mp3: “Death By Elektro” by Rae Spoon