[EPenguin10]

http://www.chartattack.com/damn/2008/06/1202.cfm

Among Hipbase faves, are included Wintersleep, The Sadies, Holy Fuck and Kathleen Edwards.

I just saw the Weakerthans and Christine Fellows live here in Paris, I would be surprised if they won. My personal picks go to either Hayden, Kathleen Edwards, The New Pornographers, Caribou or Justin Rutledge (in that order).

[grimes]

There sure was a lot of good Canadian music this year. It's going to be a tough list to get down to ten, let alone choose a winner. My top ten would look something like this:

Attack In Black — Marriage
Constantines — Kensington Heights
Kathleen Edwards — Asking For Flowers
Holy Fuck — LP
The New Pornographers — Challengers
The Sadies — New Seasons
Tegan And Sara — The Con
Two Hours Traffic — Little Jabs
The Weakerthans — Reunion Tour
Wintersleep — Welcome To The Night Sky

And my winner would be a toss up between Challengers, Reunion Tour, and Welcome to the Night Sky.

[tigerthelion]

Not sure who should win, since I haven't heard a single album on the list, but I found it interesting that the Polaris founder shares the same name as me.

[daylight]

* Buck 65 — Situation
* Basia Bulat — Oh, My Darling
* Constantines — Kensington Heights
* Hayden — In Field & Town
* Islands — Arm's Way
* The New Pornographers — Challengers
* Plants And Animals — Parc Avenue
* The Sadies — New Seasons
* The Weakerthans — Reunion Tour
* Wintersleep — Welcome To The Night Sky

Those are my faves. I'd give it to Islands at the moment, but that might just be recency talking.

[grimes]

The short list was announced this week. How Wintersleep didn't make it boggles the mind. Here's the list, with the winner announced Sept 29:

Black Mountain – In The Future
Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue
Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling
Stars – In Our Bedroom After The War
Caribou – Andorra
Shad – The Old Prince
Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers
Two Hours Traffic – Little Jabs
Holy Fuck – LP
The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour

[EPenguin10]

The short list was announced this week. How Wintersleep didn't make it boggles the mind. Here's the list, with the winner announced Sept 29:

Black Mountain – In The Future
Plants and Animals – Parc Avenue
Basia Bulat – Oh, My Darling
Stars – In Our Bedroom After The War
Caribou – Andorra
Shad – The Old Prince
Kathleen Edwards – Asking For Flowers
Two Hours Traffic – Little Jabs
Holy f**k – LP
The Weakerthans – Reunion Tour

Completely agree with you there. How TNP and Hayden were left off is also boggling...I´ve been really digging the Pornographers album lately...happy to see Kathleen and Caribou up there though.

[direwolf74]

It's an absolute crime that Wintersleep and the Constantines didn't make the short list, but it's cool to see Kathleen Edwards and the Weakerthans on there.

[EPenguin10]

The Polaris Prize went to Caribou.

http://jam.canoe.ca/Music/2008/09/29/6925096-sun.html

http://www.chartattack.com/news/60900/ca...aris-prize

[The Heron Outside]

Good enough album, nice dude too.

Wrote a piece (Can I call it that?) for the ol' blog. Check it out if you've got a moment.

[andy42g]

Great (as an enthusiastic Canadian music fan not in Canada) to be able to go through this list on the site and visit the bands' MySpace and have a listen. Weakerthans am already a convert - thanks to this forum. Holy Fcuk are playing here in a pub in sunny Leeds next week, but can't say I like them that much. (Saw the New Pornographers over here in same tiny pub last time they toured and they were great. They were recommended to me by a dutch Hip fan at one of the Amsterdam Paradiso Hip shows last year.)
Keep up the good work, Canada .

Edit: Interesting blog entry by Sherpa on this issue. Polaris sounds a bit like the Mercury prize we have over here. Basically a lot of pubilicity for some smaller, more eclectic outfits and a televised event which is not generally won by a major act or the whole thing eclipsed by some diva chucking a tantrum. The excellent Elbow scooped the Mercury this year, above mominations for Radiohead etc. Also on the list were jazz and folk albums - stuff which would never get near the major media if it weren't for the Mercury Prize. Whether it's the 'best' of British is of course debatable, but it certainly does highlight a lot of fine, diverse British musical talent which is always a good thing.

[EPenguin10]

This year's list is out: http://www.polarismusicprize.ca/2009longlist/

As usual the list is impressive. But no Hayden

The Arkells made it...

[The Heron Outside]

This year's list is out: http://www.polarismusicprize.ca/2009longlist/

As usual the list is impressive. But no Hayden

The Arkells made it...

Yeah they did. They should take this, however the jury usually has a thing for quirky records, ignoring great rock records like Kensington Heights. I'll be surprised if Arkells make the short list.

[daylight]

Hayden could (and hopefully will) make it next year - they are ridiculously out of date with some of the current crop.

Albums I think should be shortlisted:

Arkells - Jackson Square
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Handsome Furs - Face Control
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
Malajube - Labyrinthes
Joel Plaskett - Three
Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize
Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer

Albums which shouldn't even be on the longlist:

Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
K-OS - YES!
Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Metric - Fantasies
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Women - Women

Ah well, at least it gave me some new ideas for stuff to check out.

[EPenguin10]

I'm also glad to see GLS on that list. I'm not sure Hayden will be eligible for next year (unless he comes out with another album in the next 12 months). The rules state that "to qualify, albums must have been released commercially on CD between June 1, 2008 and May 31, 2009", which puts "the place where we lived" in this year's crop; The album was released May 26th.

On a completely different point, I absolutely love listening to LC (in fact he is likely in my top ten favorite artists of all time), but why is a live album on this list? And for that matter, if LC is on this list, why have the hip been snubbed? WATS is as good as any album on this list...imho. I understand that the Polaris Prize is not intended to purposely support lesser known artist** (unlike "the shortlist music prize"***), so I find it hard to believe then that WATS is not one of the top 40 albums of the year (by a canadian artist) based on "artistic merit". If there was an unwritten rule where it was understood that the point was to support lesser-known artists, wouldn't LC not be on this list?

**Polaris Music Prize nominees and winners will be selected solely on artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label affiliation. There is no submission process or entry fee.

***The Shortlist Music Prize was eligible only for albums "that have not been certified Gold"

[grimes]

Albums which shouldn't even be on the longlist:

Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
Metric - Fantasies
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise

That's crazy talk. All three should be on the short list. In my books it would be a toss-up between Plaskett and the Arkells for the winner, though I doubt either will actually win.