Since 2006, Canada's Polaris Music Prize has gained a lot of clout, and is now celebrating five years of rewarding the best Canadian album of the year, regardless of genre, sales or other inhibiting categorizations, with a $20,000 prize. Today (June 17), the Polaris Committee announced the 40-album long list from which the 2010 Polaris Prize winner will be selected.
The albums nominated for this year's Polaris Music Prize are, in alphabetical order:
Apollo Ghosts - Mount Benson Bahamas - Pink Strat The Besnard Lakes - The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night Blue Rodeo - The Things We Left Behind Brasstronaut - Mt. Chimaera Broken Social Scene - Forgiveness Rock Record Basia Bulat - Heart Of My Own By Divine Right - Mutant Message Caribou - Swim Jason Collett - Rat A Tat Tat Crystal Castles - Crystal Castles (II) Amelia Curran - Hunter, Hunter Fred Fortin - Plastrer La Lune Frog Eyes - Paul's Tomb: A Triumph Hannah Georgas - This Is Good Ghostkeeper - Ghostkeeper Holy Fuck - Latin Karkwa - Les Chemins De Verre LeE HARVeY OsMOND - A Quiet Evil Greg MacPherson - Mr. Invitation Dan Mangan - Nice, Nice, Very Nice Misteur Valaire - Golden Bombay The New Pornographers - Together Owen Pallet - Heartland Plants And Animals - La La Land Radio Radio - Belmundo Regal Justin Rutledge - The Early Widows The Sadies - Darker Circles Shad - TSOL Elizabeth Shepherd - Heavy Falls The Night The Slew - 100% Meaghan Smith - The Cricket's Orchestra South Rakkas Crew - The Stimulus Package Tegan And Sara - Sainthood The Wooden Sky - If I Don't Come Home You'll Know I'm Gone Hawksley Workman - Meat You Say Party! We Say Die! - XXXX Young Galaxy- Invisible Republic Yukon Blonde - Yukon Blonde Zeus - Say Us
Of course, you'll have to wait until September 20 to know who will take home this year's coveted prize. The winner will be announced at this year's annual Polaris Prize Gala at Toronto's Drake Hotel.
Toronto collective Fucked Up won the prize for their fantastic album, The Chemistry of Common Life, in 2009. Other past winners include Final Fantasy for He Poos Clouds (2006), Patrick Watson for Close to Paradise (2007) and Caribou for Andorra (2008).
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