Polaris Prize long list announced
June 14th, 2008 at 6.30pm (Awards, News)
The long list for the third annual Polaris Music Prize has been announced. As the website informs us, the long list consists of the top 40 full-length Canadian records released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008, selected by the 185 members of the Polaris Music Prize jury. Thirty of these albums will be eliminated to produce the 10-album shortlist, to be revealed on July 7.
The Polaris Prize is judged solely on artistic merit, without any regard for record sales; the idea is to reward outstanding Canadian artists who may or may not be enjoying proportionally outstanding sales. The winner of the prize will receive $20,000 and some pretty hefty press. The past two years’ winners were Patrick Watson (2007) and Final Fantasy (2006).
This year’s long (long, long, long) list of Polaris Prize nominees are:
The Acorn, Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black, Marriage
Basia Bulat, Oh, My Darling
Black Mountain, In The Future
Born Ruffians, Red, Yellow and Blue
Buck 65, Situation
Cadence Weapon, Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats, Hail Destroyer
Caribou, Andorra
Christine Fellows, Nevertheless
City And Colour, Bring Me Your Love
Constantines, Kensington Heights
Corb Lund, Horse Solider! Horse Soldier!
Crystal Castles, Crystal Castles
Destroyer, Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith, Tinderbox
Gatineau, Gatineau
Ghislain Poirier, No Ground Under
Hayden, In Field And Town
Hilotrons, Happymatic
Holy Fuck, LP
Islands, Arm’s Way
Justin Rutledge, Man Descending
Karkwa, Le volume du vent
Kathleen Edwards, Asking For Flowers
The New Pornographers, Challengers
Pas Chic Chic, Au Contraire
Plants And Animals, Parc Avenue
Protest The Hero, Fortress
The Sadies, New Seasons
Sandro Perri, Tiny Mirrors
Shad, The Old Prince
Socalled, Ghetto Blaster
Stars, In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara, The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Band, 13 Blues for Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic, Little Jabs
Veda Hille, This Riot Life
The Weakerthans, Reunion Tour
Wintersleep, Welcome To The Night Sky
Note to bloggers: think before you decide to type links for a 40-strong list of artists. Wow.
Tags: polaris prize
barbara said,
June 15, 2008 at 9.51am
You have gone above and beyond, obviously. That long list is one … long list!
Personally, I’d be voting for Holy Fuck, the Weakerthans, the New Pornos, or Wintersleep, but I am hearing great things about Basia Bulat’s album too and can’t wait to see her again at the folk fest.
leah said,
June 15, 2008 at 10.44pm
Mark my words The Acorn or Plants and Animals will win.
My choice is THT
Ruh said,
June 18, 2008 at 12.25am
Yeah, Miss Zombie, this is a tough list! I am interested to see what will make it to the shortlist. There are too many artists for me to even try to call it, although yours are definitely up there (I don’t know Wintersleep’s album really at all, though).
I am so excited for the folk fest.
Leah, I’d love to see the Acorn win. Two Hours Traffic are good, but when compared against this list I am surprised they were nominated, since to me they are just making conventional pop tunes rather than pushing any kind of artistic boundaries. Like I said, I’m pretty interested to see what the shortlist ends up with.