Let’s give out the 2024 Polaris Prize (part one)

I don’t usually pay attention to the Polaris Prize. Let’s change that.

Filed under: music, polaris prize

The other day the Polaris Prize folks published their Long List of nominees (think Canadian Mercury Prize, if you’re new). I normally ignore this, since the Canadian bands that I love very rarely wind up on these lists.

But! Who knows? Maybe there’s something amazing here that I missed. Maybe I’ve been wrong all these years and this is a gold mine of great new music.

Michael Barclay has a good post on it (at least before the paywall), breaking the list down in interesting ways. So let’s do this. Let’s make up some arbitrary criteria, pretend that my taste matters, and dig in.

There are 40 albums on this list. That’s a lot! Thankfully the Polaris people have thoughtfully assembled links to each artist’s various platforms. I’m still not listening to all 40 end-to-end. Here we go:

Step one: The Skim.

I checked out each record on Bandcamp or whatever (so it doesn’t mess with my recommendation algorithm, I’m a snob that way). I listened to at least one song in full (unless, y’know, no), and parts of several more to make sure it’s a fair sample of the album. If I liked what I heard, it went on my Apple Music playlist, creatively titled “Polaris”.

I recognize this is not scientific, fair, or considered. That’s how I roll: I won a football pool at work once by letting my coworker’s dog pick the winners every week. My officemates were furious.

Here’s the stuff that made the cut from THE SKIM:

• Bambii: Infinity Club
• Super Duty Tough Work: Paradigm Shift
• Big Brave: A Chaos of Flowers
• Charlotte Cardin: 99 Nights
• Cindy Lee: Diamond Jubilee
• Corridor: Mimi
• Devours: Homecoming Queen
• DijahSB: The Flower That Knew
• Dominique Fils-Aimé: Our Roots Run Deep
• Ducks Ltd: Harm’s Way
• Elisapie: Inuktitut
• Haley Blais: Wisecrack
• Jeremy Dutcher: Motewolonuwok
• Jon Mckiel: Hex
• Kaytranada: Kaytraminé
• La Force: XO Skeleton
• La securité: Stay Safe
• LOONY: LOONY
• myst milano.: Beyond the Uncanny
• NOBRO: Set Your Pussy Free
• Nyssa: Shake Me Where I’m Foolish
• Pelada: Ahora Más Que Nunca
• The Beaches: Blame My Ex

OK! That’s a total of…23 albums. More than half the list! That’s more than I was expecting, though there are a few that I’m sure will not make the next stage. That’s 14 hours (and one minute) of music, plus the Cindy Lee record that isn’t available on Apple Music. I need to figure out a way to cut more than half of them.

So: Next up?

Step two: The Cull.

The shortlist is 10 albums to be announced July 11. I don’t want to wait that long, so I’ve gotta figure out how to chop this list in half and then some.

Did I miss one? Is there a great album in there that I completely biffed on and should consider more closely? Almost certainly. Let me know in the comments or some other way.