Monday 26 July 2010



Polaris ‘10 Shortlist: Caribou Swim

Will Dan Snaith be the first 2-time Polaris Prize winner?

I’ve already reviewed Swim when it was first released (here) and my feelings about it have pretty much stayed the same, so instead of repeating myself, I’d ask that you indulge me in a little Polaris speculation and explore the possibility of Caribou becoming the first act in the prize’s five-year history of winning it twice.

There’s a 20% chance of this scenario coming to pass this year with both Caribou and Owen Pallett (who won the first award as Final Fantasy) are nominated to the shortlist.  Maybe the casual music fan isn’t thinking about this as much as I and some of my fellow judges are, but this year’s contest offers an interesting and exciting wrinkle into the whole process of choosing the best Canadian record of the year:  Should an artist be allowed to win Polaris more than once?

Yes.  Why not?  You’re not allowed to only win one Olympic gold medal, or one World Series, or one Stanley Cup, or even one Lotto Max jackpot, so why should Polaris be any different?  Limiting the possibility of winning Polaris undermines the artistic credibility of the musician, basically saying that once you win, nothing else you do is ever going to compare.  I say bull to that.  Swim makes the perfect case against this.  In comparison to Caribou’s previous Polaris winner, Andorra, I find Swim to be the more accomplished and artistic album.  Snaith started out with a conceptual idea for both (dense psychedelia meets electronica for Andorra; liquid dance music on Swim), but as a whole album, I find that Swim manages to hang together better than Andorra.

Many on this year’s Polaris jury were also jury members when Andorra made the shortlist two years ago, but when September 2010 rolls around, there will be 11 different people int he grand jury room than was in 2008 when Caribou won.  Each of them will come into that room with the knowledge that two of the artists up for consideration have already won, and they can either hold that against them or ignore it.  There is nothing in the Polaris rules or regulations that states a previous winner cannot win or shouldn’t be considered.  According to Polaris, it’s all fair game.  It’s all ultimately in the hands of the 11 grand jury members (who’ve yet to be announced for this year) and their willingness to embrace the spirit of the prize as imagined by founder Steve Jordan.  2010 could very well be a Polaris game-changer and make many take note:  Canada is not home to a bunch of one-trick ponies.  We are turning out consistently great artists who push themselves forward, evolving, developing and growing as artists.  I sincerely hope we don’t start punishing great musicians for being “too good” at what they do.

Swim was released April 20, 2010 on Merge Records.

MP3: Caribou “Odessa (Junior Boys Remix)”
Video: Caribou “Odessa”
Myspace: Caribou
Myspace: Caribou
Twitter: Caribou





by J. Di Gioia | 2 Comments »

This entry was posted on Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 9:00 am and is filed under MP3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

2 Responses to “Polaris ‘10 Shortlist: Caribou Swim”

matthew July 26th, 2010 at 9:56 am

I really don’t get the people who think albums should only be allowed to win once. I’d actually go further than you, and say that it’s not only unfair to the artists, it completely undermines the whole prize. After all, if Polaris is supposed to reward the absolute best album and then it turns around and disqualifies past winners, it’s placing a pretty huge qualification on that best album.

(That said, I don’t agree with you about Swim. I just can’t get into it. Of course, I couldn’t get into Andorra, either, so I’m probably not the right person to be talking here.)

J. Di Gioia July 26th, 2010 at 10:37 am

I’m in total agreement, Matthew. Perhaps I didn’t make my point as strongly as I should have. There would be no point in giving out the award if there were any kind of limitations on it.

As for not getting into Swim: that’s the beauty of this contest: you may not have liked it, but you LISTENED to it. Every one of us can do the same, whether we’re on the jury or not.