June 22, 2015
The 2015 Polar Music Prize Long List was announced last week in Halifax, with some new names and a bigger cash prize for the winner.
This year’s winner can expect to take home $50,000—an increase from the $30,000 cash prize of previous years.
The long list includes 40 albums, 22 of which are from new Polaris nominees. A handful of past Polaris winners have made the list as well, including Caribou and Patrick Watson.
The 2015 Polaris Music Prize Long List:
Absolutely Free – Absolutely Free
The Acorn – Vieux Loup
Lydia Ainsworth – Right from Real
Alvvays – Alvvays
Arkells – High Noon
Rich Aucoin – Ephemeral
BADBADNOTGOOD & 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
BA 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
Albums must have been released from June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015 to be considered for the long list nomination.
This year marks the first time that a curated album of songs from various artists has made the Long List. The Native North America (Vol.1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock, And Country 1966-1985 is a collection of music from Aboriginal artists in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Greenland from the 1960s to the 1980s. Read more about NNA here.
The Short List will consist of ten albums and will be released July 16 in Toronto, with the Polaris Gala being held on September 21. Each of the short list nominees will receive $3,000.
In other news…
- The winners from Sunday’s Much Music Video Awards
- Ontario Music Fund now permanent
- Neil Young: Trump’s use of “Rockin’ in the Free World” not authorized
- Celine Dion’s husband in hospital
- “Happy Birthday, Tariff 8”
- Johnny Reid to headline Maritime Countryfest
- Moog now owned by its employees
- There’s a Kickstarter campaign to help rebuild Le Studio
- SOCAN elects new Board of Directors for 2015-2018
Leyland Bradley
Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Get at me @LeylandMarie or leyland.bradley@gmail.com.