The 40 Canadian albums on this year’s Polaris Music Prize Long List were announced today at Montreal’s Phi Centre and include Tegan and Sara’s Heartthrob, Metric’s Synthetica, Lindi Ortega’s Cigarettes & Truckstops, Chilly Gonzales’ Solo Piano II, Hayden’s Us Alone, Kid Koala’ 12 Bit Blues and Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
The Polaris Music Prize awards $30,000 to the artist who creates the Canadian Album of the Year. It is judged solely on artistic merit, without consideration of genre or record sales. The list is determined by a nationwide jury comprised of more than 200 members of the Canadian music media, including journalists, bloggers, and broadcasters. All submitted their top 5 full-length albums released from June 1, 2012 to May 31, 2013
In a month the Long List will be whittled to a Short List of 10, again by a privately submitted top 5 online vote, and announced on July 16 at Toronto’s Drake Hotel. The merit of those albums will be debated by a sequestered 11-member Grand Jury at the Polaris Gala, held this year at Toronto’s Carlu on Sept. 23. The grand prize winner is then announced at the end of the evening.
“This year’s Long List is all over the map, but in the best possible way,” said Polaris Music Prize founder and executive director Steve Jordan in a press statement. “A lot of our jury expressed that this was the most difficult Polaris ballot they’ve ever submitted. The results of this careful and passionate deliberation will make for some truly engaging listening for music lovers.”
The Polaris Music Prize is “a not-for-profit organization that annually honours, celebrates and rewards creativity and diversity in Canadian recorded music by recognizing, then marketing the albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history, as judged by a panel of selected music critics.”
Past winners are Feist (2012), Arcade Fire (2011), Karkwa (2010), Fucked Up (2009), Caribou (2008), Patrick Watson (2007), and Final Fantasy (Owen Pallett) (2006).
2013 Polaris Music Prize Long List:
A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation
Alaclair Ensemble – Les maigres blancs d’Amérique du Noir
ANCIIENTS – Heart of Oak
The Besnard Lakes – Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
Louis-Jean Cormier – Le Treizième Étage
Daphni – JIAOLONG
Mac DeMarco – 2
Evening Hymns – Spectral Dusk
Hannah Georgas – Hannah Georgas
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Chilly Gonzales – Solo Piano II
Jim Guthrie – Takes Time
Hayden – Us Alone
Zaki Ibrahim – Every Opposite
KEN mode – Entrench
Kid Koala – 12 bit Blues
Kobo Town – Jumbie in the Jukebox
Pierre Lapointe – Punkt
Lee Harvey Osmond – The Folk Sinner
Les soeurs Boulay – Le poids des confettis
Corb Lund – Cabin Fever
The Luyas – Animator
Majical Cloudz – Impersonator
Metric – Synthetica
METZ – METZ
Danny Michel with the Garifuna Collective – Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me
AC Newman – Shut Down The Streets
Old Man Luedecke – Tender is The Night
Lindi Ortega – Cigarettes & Truckstops
Peter Peter – Une version améliorée de la tristesse
Purity Ring – Shrines
Rah Rah – The Poet’s Dead
Rhye – Woman
Daniel Romano – Come Cry With Me
Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
Suuns – Images du futur
Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob
Al Tuck – Stranger at the Wake
Whitehorse – The Fate of the World Depends On This Kiss
Young Galaxy – Ultramarine