This year's Polaris Music Prize will award $30,000 to the best Canadian album released between June 2012 and May 2013 based on artistic merit alone. Now, the long list of 40 nominees has been announced.
These contenders have been selected by a jury of journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across the country. They voted on their favourite albums from the past year, and these votes have been tallied to create a top 40 list.
The jurors will then re-vote to whittle this list down to a top 10, which will be unveiled on July 16, with the eventual winner being selected by a Grand Jury at the Polaris Music Prize Gala on September 23.
This year's 40 long list nominees are, in alphabetical order:
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
This is the eighth instalment of the prize. Past winners are Final Fantasy for He Poos Clouds (2006), Patrick Watson for Close to Paradise (2007), Caribou for Andorra (2008), Fucked Up for The Chemistry of Common Life (2009), Karkwa for Les Chemins De Verre (2010), Arcade Fire for The Suburbs (2011), and Feist for Metals (2012).
These contenders have been selected by a jury of journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across the country. They voted on their favourite albums from the past year, and these votes have been tallied to create a top 40 list.
The jurors will then re-vote to whittle this list down to a top 10, which will be unveiled on July 16, with the eventual winner being selected by a Grand Jury at the Polaris Music Prize Gala on September 23.
This year's 40 long list nominees are, in alphabetical order:
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
This is the eighth instalment of the prize. Past winners are Final Fantasy for He Poos Clouds (2006), Patrick Watson for Close to Paradise (2007), Caribou for Andorra (2008), Fucked Up for The Chemistry of Common Life (2009), Karkwa for Les Chemins De Verre (2010), Arcade Fire for The Suburbs (2011), and Feist for Metals (2012).