9. The Rural Alberta Advantage, "Departing" (2011)

Hometown: Toronto, Ontario (I know, it's weird. You'd think they were from, like, Alberta or something)
Notable Songs: 'Two Lovers', 'Muscle Relaxants', 'Coldest Days'

I can hear it now. "But Dave," all my non-existent daily readers loudly proclaim, "You already reviewed this album, like, two months ago!"

Yeah, so? It's a good album. And it deserves to be on this list. So shut up.

Since April, this album has been in fairly frequent rotation on my ipod. There is something about the album's energetic and simplified drum/keyboard/guitar rock offerings ("Stamp", "Muscle Relaxants", "Tornado '87") coupled with mid-tempo ballads ("Two Lovers", "Coldest Days", "North Star") that really pulls the entire piece into one cohesive whole.

In less hipster-esque speak, it's a damned good album, not just a collection of radio-worthy singles. Though you can no longer refer to this band's singles as being purely a hipster offering - they have had more market penetration these days than almost any band in Canada. You see, there was this little sports event called the "Stanley Cup Playoffs". And the R.A.A's single, "Stamp", was the background song for a beer commercial that featured very heavily in the TV timeouts. In other words, if you watchd the playoffs in Canada, you've already heard these guys.

Of course, hipster that I am, because the song was featured in a beer commercial, it is no longer "notable" in my book. Whoopsie doodle.