Juno Awards 2004

While it’s nice that our Canadian stars have a chance to shine, this sampler of Juno nominees doesn’t do a whole lot to illuminate our homegrown talent. The producers of the CD go for all of the obvious names, jumbling together Nickelback, Nelly Furtado, Michael Buble, Billy Talent, Shawn Desman, Shania Twain and Celine Dion without much concern for continuity or flow.

The only songs on here that haven’t received their fair share of radio overplay are the Buck 65, Garou and Hawksley Workman tracks. It would have been nice if the comp delved a little deeper into the nominations pool and included tracks by The Dears, Ron Sexsmith, Danko Jones, The Constantines, Oh Susanna, Sweatshop Union or anything else beyond the usual CanCon pop/rock fare.

Still, there is clearly a market for this kind of disc, no matter how patched together it is. Anyone who looks forward to attending the Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill every year, has a maple leaf tattoo or proudly sports one of those "Canadian Girls Kick Ass" baby-tees will eat this CD up with patriotic glee.