It is Polaris Music Prize season and I am anxiously waiting to hear who makes it on to the Long List. The jurors votes are in and the official long list will be announced on June 15. Polaris Music Prize, presented by CBC Music. The prize’s 40 album Long List will be announced June 15. The 10 album Short List will be unveiled on July 15. This year’s winning album reveal will take place in the fall. The exact date will be announced closer to the event. The 16th edition of the prize will be streamed around the world at CBCMusic.ca/Polaris.

While we wait we can listen to some tracks off of albums that I am hoping to see land on the list. This is in no way a prediction but only my personal long list wish list. The tracks on DarBar’s Polaris Long List playlist represent the 40 albums that I wish end up on the official list. There are some albums on my list that it will be impossible for them to make it on, and some sure to be, and many that have a chance but will they is left to be revealed.

The Polaris Music Prize is a not-for-profit organization that annually honours and rewards artists who produce Canadian music albums of distinction. A select panel of music critics judge and award the Prize without regard to musical genre or commercial popularity. All genres of music are considered for the Polaris Music Prize and no entry fee is required. Artists or their representatives do not submit to Polaris. A Long List of 40 nominated Albums of the Year will be selected by an independent jury made up of music journalists, broadcasters and music filterers from across Canada. This same jury will vote for a Short List of 10 titles that will be announced to the media in July. A second panel of 11 members of that jury will decide on the final winner.

Polaris Music Prize nominees and winners will be selected solely on artistic merit without regard to genre, sales history or professional affiliation. An album is defined as one release of at least 20 minutes of music, or at least 5 songs. To qualify, albums must have been released in full between May 1, 2020 and May 31, 2021. (from Polaris Music Prize website.)

DarBar’s Polaris Music Prize 2021 (in no particular order)

The Garrys – Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages

Bell Orchestra – House Music

Speaker Face – Crescent

TEKE::TEKE – Shirushi

C. Diab – White Whale

Hiroki Tanaka – Kaigo Kioku Kyoku

Klö Pelgag – Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs

Shabason, Krgovich & Harris – Philadelphia

Yves Jarvis – Sundry Rock Song Stock

Zoon – Bleached Wavves

Moths & Locusts – Exoplanets

Yoo Doo Right – don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose

Sarah Neufeld – Detritus

Badge Époque Ensemble – Self Help

Godspeed You! Black Emperor – G_d’s Pee AT STATE’S END

Sook-Yin Lee and Adam Litovitz – jooj two

Chad VanGaalen – World’s Most Stressed Out Gardener

Dizzy – The Sun And Her Scorch

Plants and Animals – The Jungle

Kathleen Edwards – Total Freedom

Leonard Sumner – Thunderbird

Cadence Weapon – Parallel World

Kiwi jr. – Cooler Returns

ROY – Roy’s Garage

Allison Russell – Outside Child

Fiver – Fiver with The Atlantic School of Spontaneous Composition

The OBGMs – The Ends

Thanya Iyer – KIND

Spencer Krug – Fading Graffiti

Leanne Betasamosake Simpson – Theory of Ice

Ben Shemie – A Single Point of Light

LAL – Meteors Could Come Down

Bernice – Eau De Bonjourno

The Weather Station – Ignorance

Rich Aucoin – United States

The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings

DJ Shub – War Club

Art d’Ecco – In Standard Definition

Aidan Knight – Aidan Knight

Michael Scott Dawson – Nowhere, Middle Of

The list is in no particular order but my top picks are at the start. I am really pulling for Saskatoon’s The Garrys and their album Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages. The Roxy Theatre in Saskatoon started doing a series of movie screenings a few years ago, where they’d pair a famous silent film with a popular local band. The band would write a soundtrack for the movie, then perform it at a live screening. This was The Garrys turn at it and they did an amazing job of it. The full movie with soundtrack is at the end of the YouTube playlist. Bell Orchestre, Speaker Face, TEKE::TEKE, and C. Diab are some of my other favs I am rooting for. Musicians may not have been able to play live shows but many seemed to have kept their creative juices flowing. I had many more new discoveries again this year and maybe you too will find a new favourite. What albums are you hoping will be on the long list?