Image - Courtesy of Polaris Music Prize

Image – Courtesy of Polaris Music Prize

It’s that time of month where Canadian music fans anticipate the Polaris Music Prize long list. There’s always complaints about certain artists or bands not making it to the list and then when it get whittled down to the top 10, there’s more madness and fury. It’s all in the fun and excitement to finding out who made it and which obscure album got on the list.
Don’t forget that it’s compiled and determined by a jury of broadcasters, journalists, bloggers and programmers who choose their albums based on artistic merit. The winning album this year gets the $50,000.

Here’s the list of the 40 nominated albums for the 2015 edition of Polaris Music Prize;

Absolutely Free – Absolutely Free
The Acorn – Vieux Loup
Lydia Ainsworth – Right From Real
Alvvays – Alvvays
Arkells – High Noon
Rich Aucoin – Ephemeral
BadBadNotGood and Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul
Bahamas – Bahamas is Afie
The Barr Brothers – Sleeping Operator
Braids – Deep in the Iris
Steph Cameron – Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady
Caribou – Our Love
Jazz Cartier – Marauding in Paradise
Jennifer Castle – Pink City
Cold Specks – Neuroplasticity
Louis-Jean Cormier – Les grandes artères
Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World
Drake – If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late
Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean
Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon
B.A. Johnston – Shit Sucks
Pierre Kwenders – Le dernier empereur Bantou
Lee Harvey Osmond – Beautiful Scars
Jean Leloup – À Paradis City
Metz – II
Milk & Bone – Little Mourning
Tre Mission – Stigmata
The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers
Joel Plaskett – The Park Avenue Sobriety Test
Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power in the Blood
Elizabeth Shepherd – The Signal
Siskiyou – Nervous
Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld – Never Were the Way She Was
Various Artists – Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country, 1966-1985
Viet Cong – Viet Cong
Patrick Watson – Love Songs For Robots
The Weather Station – Loyalty
White Lung – Deep Fantasy
Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned
Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv

All in all, it’s a good list as 2014 (after June) and 2015 (up until May) releases had terrific albums coming out. There’s a bunch returnees and a couple of new entries like Alvvays. Ottawa’s own The Acorn made it to the list and is the only representative from the area.

As you know that the blog usually wraps up for the season in June, I won’t be covering the short list but when the Gala is in September, expect a recap. It will be a fun time to cover the Gala for another year.