Polaris Prize Hopefuls Reduced To 40

06/12/08 4:00pm

by Steve McLean (CHARTattack)

The list of contenders for the 2008 Polaris Music Prize has been narrowed to 40.

This is the third year for the $20,000 prize, but the first time that the "Long List" has been made public. The 185 members of the Polaris jury — comprised of music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers from across Canada — were asked to rank their five favourite Canadian albums released from June 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008. The top 40 vote-getters made the Long List.

Those 40 records will be reduced to 10 in the next round of voting, and that "Short List" will be revealed on July 7 at Toronto's Drake Hotel. The winner will be decided by an 11-member jury at a Toronto awards ceremony in September.

"Our objective with the Polaris Long List is to expose even more of the essential music that's being made across the country and hopefully increase anticipation for what is sure to be a thrilling 2008 Short List," says Polaris founder and executive director Steve Jordan.

Here are the albums on the Polaris Music Prize Long List:

The Acorn — Glory Hope Mountain
Attack In Black — Marriage
Black Mountain — In The Future
Born Ruffians — Red, Yellow & Blue
Buck 65 — Situation
Basia Bulat — Oh, My Darling
Cadence Weapon — Afterparty Babies
Cancer Bats — Hail Destroyer
Caribou — Andorra
City And Colour — Bring Me Your Love
Constantines — Kensington Heights
Crystal Castles — Crystal Castles
Destroyer — Trouble In Dreams
Fred Eaglesmith — Tinderbox
Kathleen Edwards — Asking For Flowers
Christine Fellows — Nevertheless
Gatineau — Gatineau
Hayden — In Field & Town
Veda Hille — This Riot Life
HILOTRONS — Happymatic
Holy Fuck — LP
Islands — Arm's Way
Karkwa — Le Volume Du Vent
Corb Lund — Horse Soldier! Horse Soldier!
The New Pornographers — Challengers
Pas Chic Chic — Au Contraire
Sandro Perri — Tiny Mirrors
Plants And Animals — Parc Avenue
Ghislain Poirier — No Ground Under
Protest The Hero — Fortress
Justin Rutledge — Man Descending
The Sadies — New Seasons
Shad — The Old Prince
Socalled — Ghettoblaster
Stars — In Our Bedroom After The War
Tegan And Sara — The Con
Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra And Tra-La-La Band —13 Blues For Thirteen Moons
Two Hours Traffic — Little Jabs
The Weakerthans — Reunion Tour
Wintersleep — Welcome To The Night Sky