The Polaris Music Prize Short List will be revealed on Tuesday, July 16. The playlist today has a couple tracks each for 10 artists that I am hoping will be on that list. I was 0/5 on my ballot for the Long List, so here’s hoping some of my picks make it this time around.
I had a lot of listening to do and it was very difficult to narrow the 40 on the Long List down to my 10 for the Short List. There was only a couple albums that I was sure I was voting for but there were 10 to 15 more that I was considering.
Shad’s A Short Story About a War was an album I feel strongly should be on the short list. It’s an album that stands out with the realities of injustice, greed and racism in the lyrics and great music and production to go with it. Alexandra Streliski’s INSCAPE is the other album I was certain about. It is a masterpiece. Moving instrumental piano music that I feel.
The rest I was not so certain on. There are a lot of great albums, I just wasn’t sure which great albums I was going to vote for. Maybe LAL’s Dark Beings, the Toronto based duo or Operator’s Radiant Dawn. Marie Davidson’s Working Class Woman and Jessie Reyez’s Being Human in Public are both very strong favourites of mine. Snotty Nose Rez Kid’s TRAPLINE won’t soon be forgotten. Then there is Fucked Up’s Dose Your Dreams, which found the band going in a new direction and it worked out very well. Or veterans Voivod and their prog/thrash metal album The Wake, that is superb. Or Pup’s Morbid Stuff punk rock album which is also a great album.
There were many more albums I considered. A few French albums really caught my ear and a few hip hop/r&b/urban ones did too. There were a few albums such as Tim Baker’s Forever Overhead and Dizzy’s Baby Teeth that I love but just didn’t quite get on my list for various reasons.
Here is my Short List playlist. Who is on your short list?
Good Morning,
Happy weekend to everyone.
Thanks for the playlist Dar.
Good morning.
Thanks for listening Scott!
hello from Sunderland
Hello in Sunderland. What was on the schedule for today?
Hi All! Sorry I haven’t been around here in awhile, life just gets in the way.
I will listen to this playlist, (when I get home ’cause it’s blocked at work -> bastards).
I hope you’re all good. Congrats on the Radio Shows?? Darbar & Garf
– Wynnzie
Ballad of a Runaway Girl has been played a lot in my house and I would love to see Elisapie bring home the Polaris … Tim Bakers solo project is a winner for me too. While Dominique Fils-Aime previous album is hard to beat her latest work is in high rotation here as well. I was surprised how much I enjoyed Lee Harvey Osmonds album as it leans further into country than I usually do. My homework includes listening to the whole Shad album as I can not say if I think it is prize worthy or not due to my lack of knowledge there.
Rap (ish); so often I like the lyrics but not the “music”. I appreciate the poetry and political messages behind Snotty Nose Rez Kids, Shad and Kimmortal but the instrumental side of their creations make it hard for me to really get into it.
In listening to Operators I am having flash backs to the 90’s. Perhaps Peter Gabriel, Devo … help me out here …
I really enjoy some hip hop. Must be the beats along with the message. Albums such as Ellisapie, Tim Baker and such are lovely but just don’t push the envelope enough for me for Polaris consideration. I have Tim’s album on vinyl and it will get lots of spins though. That artistic merit for me is the whole album has to keep me interested, have something different going on or just be so beautiful that it moves me deeply. Singer/songwriters only occasionally hit those marks for me.
Operators sound definitely has a throw back to 80s/90s analog synth stuff sound.
Thanks for stopping in Wynnzie!