Albums by Jessie Reyez, Orville Peck, Marie Davidson, Fucked Up, PUP, Shad, Carly Rae Jepsen and mega-huge pop star heartthrob Shawn Mendes have landed on the Polaris Music Prize’s 2019 long list.
The 40 albums were selected by a panel of 199 jurors – that includes NOW editors Richard Trapunski and Michelle da Silva – who will whittle the long list down to a short list of 10 on July 16.
The annual award, which Jeremy Dutcher won last year, honours Canadian albums released between May 1, 2018 and May 21, 2019. Judging is based on artistic merit – genre or sales are not considered.
The Greater Toronto Area is well-represented on the list.
Recent NOW cover stars PUP and Jessie Reyez are on there, as are R&B artist Tanika Charles rappers Haviah Mighty, Clairmont The Second, TOBi, Shad and Sydanie folk musicians Kaia Kater and Charlotte Cornfield electronic band LAL post-rocker Sandro Perri indie bands whose names start with the letter D Dizzy and Dilly Dally past winners Fucked Up masked queer country newcomer Orville Peck and Calvin Klein underwear model Shawn Mendes.
High-profile acts who didn’t make the list include Toronto Raptors global ambassador Drake, who released the album Scorpion last June, Toronto-via-Saskatchewan musician Andy Shauf‘s band Foxwarren and Berlin-based Vancouver disco head Jayda G.
In total, 233 albums were considered. The winner will be announced at the Polaris Gala on September 16 at the Carlu, and will be live streamed globally at cbcmusic.ca/polaris. The Canadian Album of the Year winner receives $50,000 and the nine other acts on the Short List will take home $3,000 each.
The full long list is below, with links to NOW reviews and interviews:
Tim Baker, Forever Overhead
Tanika Charles, The Gumption
Clairmont The Second, Do You Drive?
Charlotte Cornfield, The Shape Of Your Name
Marie Davidson, Working Class Woman
Dilly Dally, Heaven
The Dirty Nil, Master Volume
Dizzy, Baby Teeth
Elisapie, The Ballad Of The Runaway Girl
FET.NAT, Le Mal
Dominique Fils-Aimé, Stay Tuned!
Fucked Up, Dose Your Dreams
Yves Jarvis, The Same But By Different Means
Carly Rae Jepsen, Dedicated
Kaia Kater, Grenades
Kimmortal, X Marks The Swirl
La Force, La Force
LAL, Dark Beings
Laurence-Anne, Première apparition
Salomé Leclerc, Les choses extérieures
Lee Harvey Osmond, Mohawk
Jean Leloup, L’étrange pays
Shay Lia, Dangerous
Les Louanges, La nuit est une panthère
Loud, Tout ça pour ça
Shawn Mendes, Shawn Mendes
Haviah Mighty, 13th Floor
Operators, Radiant Dawn
Orville Peck, Pony
Sandro Perri, In Another Life
PUP, Morbid Stuff
Lee Reed, The Steal City EP
Jessie Reyez, Being Human In Public
Shad, A Short Story About A War
Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Trapline
Alexandra Stréliski, INSCAPE
Sydanie, 999
TOBi, STILL
Voivod, The Wake
Wintersleep, In The Land Of
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