''Paper Anniversary'' is the third album by Canadian folk-pop singer

Christine Fellows Christine Fellows (born 1968) is a Canadian folk-pop singer-songwriter from Winnipeg, Manitoba. History Born in Windsor, Ontario and raised in France and Kelowna, British Columbia, Fellows lived in Toronto, Vancouver, Guelph and Montreal before ...

, released in 2005 on

Six Shooter Records Six Shooter Records is an independent record label based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, that uses an artist-centric business model, focusing on art before commerce combined with extensive touring. Six Shooter Records was founded in 2000 by Shauna d ...

. The album was recorded in Fellows' own home, largely on her own but with contributions from her husband

John K. Samson John Kristjan Samson (born 1973) is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is a singer-songwriter and best known as the frontman of the Canadian indie folk/rock band The Weakerthans. He also played bass in the punk band Propagandhi duri ...

, his

Weakerthans The Weakerthans are an award-winning and Juno-nominated Canadian indie rock band from Winnipeg. The band, led by John K. Samson, has released four studio albums and is currently inactive. History The band was formed in 1997 in Winnipeg, Manito ...

bandmate

Jason Tait Jason Tait is a Canadian musician from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He is the drummer for the Canadian indie rock band The Weakerthans. Tait has also been a contributing member of Broken Social Scene and The FemBots. Career Tait played drums for the Pa ...

, cellist Leanne Zacharias, violist Monica Guenter and multi-instrumentalist Barry Mirochnick.Bartley Kives, "Winnipeg musician Fellows celebrating Paper Anniversary". ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'', June 2, 2005. The album is framed by two songs, "Foreword" and "Afterword", that are written from the perspective of Klaus Burlakow, a Winnipeg city bureaucrat who was arrested for bank robbery in 2003, with Fellows stating that she was "fascinated by the way this guy could live a double life". Fellows explained that she had tried to write from a more fictionalized rather than autobiographical perspective on the album, although she acknowledged that "Vertebrae" was written about visiting her dying grandfather in the hospital, and some lyrical details in the songs were drawn from her personal and professional relationships with Samson and Zacharias. "Instructions on How to Dissect a Ground Owl" was based on a translation of a poem by

Julio Cortázar Julio Florencio Cortázar (26 August 1914 – 12 February 1984; ) was an Argentine, nationalized French novelist, short story writer, essayist, and translator. Known as one of the founders of the Latin American Boom, Cortázar influenced an ent ...

Critical response

Stewart Mason of '' AllMusic'' compared the album to the work of Lisa Germano, Aimee Mann and

Fiona Apple Fiona Apple McAfee-Maggart (born September 13, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter. She has released five albums from 1996 to 2020, which have all reached the top 20 on the U.S. ''Billboard'' 200 chart. Apple has received numerous awards an ...

. Shawn Conner of the ''

Vancouver Courier The ''Vancouver Courier'' was a Canadian semi-weekly local newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by the Van-Net chain owned by Glacier Media Group. In 2007, it was Canada's largest distributed community newspaper, with a wee ...

'' praised the album, writing that it is "filled with perfect miniatures as finely wrought and layered as a '' New Yorker'' short story, with an inviting first line and an eye for detail," and noted that the album "was made in Winnipeg, and the city's famous winters, its isolation and stillness set the tone for this sublime and affecting work". He concluded that "a perfect record in nearly every respect, ''Paper Anniversary'' is easily one of the best albums of the year." Michael Barclay of the ''

Waterloo Region Record The ''Waterloo Region Record'' (formerly ''The Record'') is the daily newspaper covering Waterloo Region, Ontario, Canada, including the cities of Kitchener, Waterloo and Cambridge, as well as the surrounding area. Since December 1998, the ''Re ...

'' was more dismissive, writing that "while ''Paper Anniversary'' boasts lovely arrangements and performances, Fellows' hoser schoolteacher vocals suffer from over-enunciation in search of a melody, even though her lyrics hold up perfectly as poetry on paper," but acknowledged that it would likely appeal to fans of

Veda Hille Veda Hille (born August 11, 1968) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, keyboardist and tenor guitar player from Vancouver, British Columbia. She writes songs about love and tragedy, as well as about topical British Columbia subjects.< ...

. Silas Polkinghorne of the ''

Saskatoon Star-Phoenix ''The StarPhoenix'' is a daily newspaper that serves Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and is a part of Postmedia Network. The ''StarPhoenix'' puts out six editions each week and publishes one weekly, ''Bridges''. It is also part of the canada.com ...

'' named the album, alongside Rae Spoon's ''White Hearse Comes Rolling'',

Jason Collett Jason Collett is a Toronto-based Canadian singer-songwriter. He has released six solo studio albums, and is a former member of Broken Social Scene. His latest album, ''Song & Dance Man'', was released in February, 2016. Early life Collett was bo ...

's ''

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'' and

Constantines Constantines is an indie rock band from Guelph, Ontario, Canada. History Constantines was formed in 1999 by vocalist and guitarist Bryan Webb, drummer Doug MacGregor and guitarist Paul Bright, all of whom had played together in the emo band Shou ...

' ''

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'', as works that had been on his ballot for the

2006 Polaris Music Prize The inaugural edition of the Canadian Polaris Music Prize presented on September 18, 2006, at Toronto's Phoenix Concert Theatre. The winning album was Final Fantasy's '' He Poos Clouds''. Nominees The prize's list of 10 finalist albums, chosen f ...

, with

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's '' Apologies to the Queen Mary'' being the only album on the shortlist that he had voted for.Silas Polkinghorne, "Polaris Prize gives great CDs their due". ''

'', July 6, 2006.

Track listing

# "Foreword" # "Vertebrae" # "Road Trip" # "Migrations" # "Face Down, Feet First" # "Instructions on How to Dissect a Ground Owl" # "Paper Anniversary" # "Souvenirs" # "Double Takes" # "We Two" # "Phantom Pains" # "Departures/Arrivals" # "Paper Anniversary (Reprise)" # "Afterword"

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paper Anniversary (Album) 2005 albums Christine Fellows albums Six Shooter Records albums