Moneyballing the Polaris Prize long list

Amelia Curran should have
been on the 2015 long list

Here it is, folks, your 2015 Polaris Music Prize long list. 196 critics voted for 197 titles, and we wound up with these 40. Some kings went down for a fall. Some obscure underdogs are now part of the conversation. Ten will be on the short list, announced July 16, and one will be given $50,000 on Sept. 21. (The other nine artists on the short list get $3,000 each.)

Absolutely Free – s/t 

The Acorn – Vieux Loup

Lydia Ainsworth – Right From Real

Alvvays – s/t

Arkells – High Noon

Rich Aucoin – Ephemeral

BadBadNotGood feat. Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul

Bahamas – Is Afie

Barr Brothers - Sleeping Operator

Braids – Deep in the Iris

Steph Cameron – Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady

Caribou – Our Love

Jazz Cartier – Marauding in Paradise

Jennifer Castle – Pink City

Cold Specks – Neuroplasticity

Louis-Jean Cormier – Les Grandes Arteres

Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World

Drake – If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late

Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean

Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon

B.A. Johnston – Shit Sucks

Pierre Kwenders – Le dernier empereur bantou

Lee Harvey Osmond – Beautiful Scars

Jean Leloup – A Paradis City

Metz – II

Milk and Bone – Little Morning  

Tre Mission – Stigmata

New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers

Joel Plaskett – Park Avenue Sobriety Test

Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power in the Blood

Elizabeth Shepherd – The Signal

Siskiyou – Nervous

Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld – Never the Way She Was

Various Artists – Native North America

Viet Cong – s/t

Patrick Watson – Love Songs for Robots

Weather Station – Loyalty

White Lung – Deep Fantasy

Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned

Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv

I wrote about some trends in this list for Maclean's today as well, and make the case for 74-year-old Buffy Sainte-Marie having a good shot at being the oldest winner in the history of Polaris—which usually has a Logan's Run policy at age 40.

Familiar faces

Previous winners: 2 (Caribou, Patrick Watson)

Previous shortlisters: 9

Previous longlisters: 8

New to Polaris: 21

Compilations: 1 (first time that’s happened)

Most appearances on Polaris list: Patrick Watson, Joel Plaskett and New Pornographers are all making their fourth appearance on a Polaris list. [updated] Tom Wilson's main project, Lee Harvey Osmond, has now made three long lists; his other band, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings, has also longlisted, meaning he too has been on four times.

Geography

Toronto: 16

Montreal: 6

Vancouver: 5

Hamilton: 4 (Arkells, Caribou, Lee Harvey Osmond, B.A. Johnston)

Halifax: 2 (Rich Aucoin, Joel Plaskett) (also Alvvays)

Quebec City: 1

Ottawa: 1 (The Acorn)

Calgary: 1

Rural B.C.: 1 (Steph Cameron)
Hawaii via Saskatchewan: 1 (Buffy Sainte-Marie)

West of Ontario: 7

East of Quebec: 2

Babies and geezers

Debut albums: 7

Oldest performers: Buffy Sainte-Marie, 74; [updated] Tom Wilson (Lee Harvey Osmond), 55; Jean Leloup, 54; A.C. Newman (New Pornographers), 47; Ghostface Killah, 45

Genre

Hip-hop: 4 (Drake, BadBadNotGood, Jazz Cartier, Tre Mission)

Francophone: 3 (Louis-Jean Cormier, Pierre Kwenders, Jean Leloup)

Experimental: 2 (Absolutely Free, Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld)

Electronic: 2 (Rich Aucoin, Caribou)

Aggressive: 2 (White Lung, Metz)

Jazz: 1 (Elizabeth Shepherd)

World: 1 (Pierre Kwenders, though arguably electronic)

Everything else (rock, pop, folk, roots): 25

The ladies

Female-fronted bands or solo acts: 14

Bands not fronted by women but with female instrumentalists: 1 (New Pornographers) (Note: there are only 14 acts on the list that could be considered bands, not solo acts or duos)

Heroes to zeroes

Previous winners left off the 2015 long list:

Godspeed You Black Emperor (abstained) (winner, 2013)

Tagaq (winner, 2014): She didn't release an album of her own material, but her 2015 album with the Kronos Quartet, Tundra Songs, featured compositions by Derek Charke.

Fucked Up (winner 2008, shortlist 2012)

Previous shortlisters left off the 2015 long list:

Purity Ring (shortlisted, 2013) 

Galaxie (shortlisted 2011)

Ron Sexsmith (shortlisted 2011) Previous album didn’t longlist either

Hey Rosetta (shortlisted 2009, 2011)

Stars (shortlisted 2008, longlisted 2011) Previous album didn’t longlist either

Elliott Brood (shortlisted 2009) Previous album didn’t longlist either

Great Lake Swimmers (shortlisted 2009, longlisted 2012)

Dan Mangan (shortlisted, 2010, longlisted 2012)

And these artists, though they’ve never made the shortlist, have long-listed more than once—but not this year:

Leonard Cohen (longlisted 2009, 2012) 

Buck 65 (longlisted 2008, 2011)

Hayden (longlisted 2008, 2013)

Sloan (longlisted 2009, 2011)

Juno winners, Polaris losers:

Magic! (Single of the Year, Breakthrough Group of the Year)

Nickelback (new album not eligible at last Junos, but multiple winner over the years)

Kiesza (Dance Recording of the Year)

Lights (Pop Album of the Year)

Deadmau5 (Electronic Album of the Year)

Catherine MacLellan    (Roots and Traditional – Solo)

Devin Townsend Project (Metal Album of the Year) 

So who was robbed? I thought these would surely be on the list:

Amelia Curran

Rochelle Jordan

Kiesza

Mo Kenney

Terra Lightfoot

And then some albums I was considering (and/or voted for), but wasn’t sure if they’d make it:

Afiara Quartet + Skratch Bastid

Boogat

Leonard Cohen

Ian William Craig

Iceberg Ferg

Keita Juma

Daniel Lanois
Last Ex

Salomé Leclerc

Sagot

I’ll elaborate more on those in a later post.

In the meantime, I urge you to give these all a spin.