Pitchfork reports that the shortlist of nominees for the 2014 Polaris Music Prize has been revealed. The recipient of the annual award, which honors the best Canadian album of the year, "is selected by a large panel of Canadian journalists and broadcasters," and will be announced on September 22 at the Polaris Gala. The winner also receives a prize of $30,000.
The nominees for this year's Polaris Music Prize are:
Arcade Fire - Reflektor
Basia Bulat - Tall Tall Shadow
Drake - Nothing Was The Same
Jessy Lanza - Pull My Hair Back
Mac DeMarco - Salad Days
Owen Pallett - In Conflict
Shad - Flying Colours
Tanya Tagaq - Animism
Timber Horses - Hot Dreams
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan - UZU
Canadian actor Jay Baruchel announced the nominees today and will be hosting the Polaris Gala on September 22 in Toronto.
Last year's Polaris Music Award went to Montreal post-rock outfit Godspeed You! Black Emperor for its album Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!, though the famously political band was less than thrilled. In a statement responding to its win, the band said, "holding a gala during a time of austerity and normalized decline is a pretty weird thing to do...organizing a gala just so musicians can compete against each other for a novelty-sized cheque doesn't serve the cause of righteous music at all...asking the toyota motor company to help cover the tab for that gala, during a summer where the melting northern ice caps are live-streaming on the internet, IS F**KING INSANE, and comes across as tone-deaf to the current horrifying malaise."
If that's how the winners feel, I can't imagine how upset the losers get.
