Arcade Fire, Feist And The Dears Among Polaris Nominees

The 10 finalists for the second annual Polaris Music Prize, awarded to the best Canadian album of the past year, were announced at Toronto's Drake Hotel on Tuesday. 

Cadence Weapon, one of last year's finalists, DJed the party and helped with the announcement of this year's 10 best, which featured a few obvious names and a few surprises. While Arcade Fire's Neon Bible, The Besnard Lakes' Are The Dark Horse and Feist's The Reminder were relative no-brainers, Miracle Fortress' Five Roses and Julie Doiron's Woke Myself Up managed to beat out highly touted entries from Emily Haines & The Soft Skeleton, Galaxie Rising Stars award winners Handsome Furs, Shout Out Out Out Out, Great Lake Swimmers and Hidden Cameras, among about 160 other long list selections.

A panel of more than 170 music journalists (including four Chart staff members) and broadcasters from across Canada were asked to choose their five favourite albums released by homegrown artists between June 1, 2006 and May 31, 2007. Judges were asked to make their selections based solely on artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or label affiliation. An initial long list was then whittled down to the top 10 based on a points system.

A couple of nominees attracted the attention of numerous television cameras and print journalists in attendance.

"I think it's awesome," said The Besnard Lakes' Olga Goreas, who was a little exhausted having stepped off a plane from Montreal just before the ceremony. "I feel great and I'm completely flattered and flabbergasted and any other superlative. It's great."

Joel Plaskett, whose Ashtray Rock garnered a five-star review from Chart, was a little more vocal about the award and the $20,000 prize that comes with it.

"I'm really happy with the record we made and I feel like it's been a fantastic year for myself and the band and the attention the record has gotten, so good things have been happening, and this is one of them. It's great and the critical reception to the record's been pretty awesome. So I'm just thrilled to be acknowledged in that way. It's good to have a Canadian music award. The Canadian music scene, we have sort of a regional view of it on the east coast, so you can sort of feel the music community getting closer. It's sort of an important award, but I think people are also pretty casual about it, you know?

"I mean, money's great if it helps facilitate cool stuff, right? So if we win the money, I'd have to do something that would allow me to keep playing music and making records in an interesting way. So I think it's great to acknowledge art in the form of a financial reward if it means you're gonna get more art out of the equation. Even if it means paying off the van you just bought, because it frees you up to create. So I think it's cool that there's a prize attached to it."

The winner will be chosen during a gala concert in Toronto on Sept. 24 at a venue to be announced soon. Final Fantasy's He Poos Clouds took the $20,000 prize last year.

This year's 10 finalists, in alphabetical order, are:
Arcade Fire — Neon Bible
The Besnard Lakes — Are The Dark Horse
The Dears — Gang Of Losers
Julie Doiron — Woke Myself Up
Feist — The Reminder
Junior Boys — So This Is Goodbye
Miracle Fortress — Five Roses
Joel Plaskett Emergency — Ashtray Rock
Chad VanGaalen — Skelliconnection
Patrick Watson — Close To Paradise