Saturday 08 May 2010
Planning for the Prize
It was around this time last year that I got my invitation to be a part of the Polaris Music Prize jury, giving me little time to come up with my Top 5 Canadian albums of the Year prior to the longlist nomination deadline. For this year’s prize, I’ve blogged, written, and commented with a constant eye on what I would consider to be the albums of the year. Early on, i thought that Polaris 2010 would be a banner year, and that there would be too many records too choose from. Let me rephrase that: I thought there would be too many good albums to choose from, but the reality has been that few records have really had the staying power to still be in contention in these last few weeks of eligibility. I try to be objective when it comes to records like Broken Social Scene’s which ring freshly in my ears because of their recent release; at one point or another, all the records that will end up putting on my list sounded fresh and new. Sure, time may not end up being as kind to some records, but that to me is an indication that they wouldn’t have ended up making my list in the first place.
So what’s my criteria? I try and keep it simple: what records do I keep going back to listen to? Of those records, which are the ones I could–and do–listen to from beginning to end? For me that’s the best way to separate the wheat from the chaff. Does a record offer more than just a couple of cheap thrills and a bunch of filler? Most importantly though, I want to pick 5 records that I would feel absolutely comfortable standing and defending in a room full of jurists trying to boil it all down to one. If I were part of the grand jury, and any of these five records were on the shortlist, could I justify my choice?
That’s a harder decision to finalize than it seems. I’ll be making lists and playlists for the next few weeks trying to determine what those five records will be. This is by no means a complete list, but some of the artists I’m considering are the aforementioned Broken Social Scene, Ohbijou, Bahamas, Rufus Wainwright, The Besnard Lakes, Postdata, Dan Mangan, Caribou and You Say Party! We Say Die!. Any thoughts?
Important dates for the 2010 Polaris Music Prize were announced earlier this week: Long List nominations will be made public on June 17; the Shortlist of 10 will be announced on July 6, and the Gala and Winner will be crowned on September 20 (all in Toronto). For more details check out the official Polaris site.
MP3: Dan Mangan “Road Regrets”
Myspace: Dan Mangan
MP3: Ohbijou “New Years”
Myspace: Ohbijou
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Rural Alberta Advantage
Justin May 8th, 2010 at 10:41 am
Julie Fader, Miss Emily Brown, Justin Rutledge, Radio Radio, Wax Mannequin, Do Make Say Think all deserver serious consideration too … it’s tough, every time my list gets shorter, it gets longer again.