Polaris Shortlist Announced

The countdown clock is finally winding down. We’re just hours away from the announcement of this year’s Polaris Music Prize Shortlist. The 40 albums below will soon cut down to ten.

• Art Bergmann, The Apostate
• Justin Bieber, Purpose
• Black Mountain, IV
• Jean-Michel Blais, Il
• Basia Bulat, Good Advice
• Daniel Caesar, Pilgrim’s Paradise
• Tanika Charles, Soul RunD
• City and Colour, If I Should Go Before You
• Cœur de pirate, Roses
• Dead Obies, Gesamtkunstwerk
• Destroyer, Poison Season
• Dilly Dally, Sore
• Drake, Views
• Essaie pas, Demain est une autre nuit
• Fred Fortin, Ultramarr
• Foxtrott, A Taller Us
• Grimes, Art Angels
• Half Moon Run, Sun Leads Me On
• Veda Hille, Love Waves
• Jazz Cartier, Hotel Paranoia
• Carly Rae Jepsen, E•MO•TION
• Junior Boys, Big Black Coat
• Kaytranada, 99.9%
• Jessy Lanza, Oh No
• Majid Jordan, Majid Jordan
• Michelle McAdorey, Into Her Future
• Nap Eyes, Thought Rock Fish Scale
• Safia Nolin, Limoilou
• Operators, Blue Wave
• Peaches, Rub
• PUP, The Dream Is Over
• Daniel Romano, Mosey
• Andy Shauf, The Party
• The Strumbellas, Hope
• Suuns, Hold/Still
• U.S. Girls, Half Free
• Un Blonde, Good Will Come to You
• The Weeknd, Beauty Behind the Madness
• White Lung, Paradise
• Donovan Woods, Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled

The livestream now over at what do you think of this list?

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Polaris 2016 Facts

• This is perhaps the most “mainstream” long list ever produced by Polaris, featuring the likes of Justin Beiber, Carly Rae Jepsen, Drake and The Weeknd
• Just one album on this year’s long list is a self-titled release; that of Majid Jordan
• This year’s nominees aren’t big on punctuation. Just five albums feature anything beyond the alphanumeric in their titles. Donovan Woods was the most diverse in his punctuating, using both a comma and an apostrophe in Hard Settle, Ain’t Troubled. Bullet points and apostrophes appear most often with two each (Carly Rae Jepsen’s E•MO•TION, Donovan Woods’ nomination and Daniel Caesar’s Pilgrim’s Paradise)
• Dead Obies take the prize for this year’s tongue twister. Hoping they make the Shortlist just so we can hear the announcer and all the radio hosts stumble over Gesamtkunstwerk
• You’re not too badly off this year if you didn’t pay attention in French class. Essaie pas and Coeur de Pirate are the only glaringly obvious francophone artists on the list (correct me if there are more,) and Coeur is significantly bilingual on Roses
• This post is the most tagged ever (81!) in OurBasement’s short history

Relisten to DarBarSpecial’s Polaris Long List Playlist!