The 2019 Polaris Long List – who's on it and who should've been

Surprise! The latest Shawn Mendes album made it onto the Polaris Prize Long List but Doug Paisley's excellent Starter Home didn't. 

A panel of 199 Polaris Prize jurors considered 233 albums released by Canadian artists and last week they announced a long list of 40 albums (see below) that will be in the running for the top award of $50,000 for music excellence. Prior nominees Carly Rae Jepsen, Wintersleep, Shad and 2009 winner Fucked Up are back again.

Canuck pop star Shawn Mendes also made the list with his self-titled third album which debuted at number one on US and Canadian charts upon release on May 25th. And although the  cut-off dates for the 2019 Polaris Prize consideration run from June 1, 2018 to May 31, 2019, in certain special cases there are exceptions. According to the Polaris Prize rules for 2019, "Albums released between May 1, and May 31, 2018 that did not make the 2018 Long List will also be considered." So Mendes' hugely successful album – now certified platinum in Canada and gold in the US and UK – made the cut.

Technically speaking, mega-selling albums are qualified to be on the Polaris Prize long list. However, the real question is it really fair for established celebrities like Mendes and Jepsen – who have extensive music industry machinery grinding away on their behalf – to compete against artists working independently? It seems like the Juno Awards has the whole Canadian music biz popularity contest thing covered. The Polaris Prize could be much more beneficial to our shared musical eco-system in rewarding exceptional artistic achievement which isn't already being featured on glossy magazines and prime-time network television.

Perhaps one of those high-profile types will do the honourable thing – the Canadian thing – and give up their spot to a less established artist who could really benefit from the Polaris-related attention. Who you ask? Well, just off the top of my head there's Toronto singer/songwriter Doug Paisley who's brilliant Starter Home album really deserves to be a finalist and likewise Catl's blues rockin' Bide My Time Until I Die – which is their fifth album and no, none of their previous releases have been given the stamp of Polaris approval either.

Of course, there are loads of other credible Canuck artists who've released recordings deserving wider recognition. There's The Band Whose Name Is A Symbol's Aggregate Fractures... In Search Of Highs, Kilrush Drive by Red Mass, The self-titled EP from Vancouver punks Chain Whip, Kick It Till You Flip It by Brodie West's Eucalyptus, Toronto rapper Mathematik's ReAL/iS-Him, Chris Houston's Hazards Of Glitter, Abundance by Ernesto Cervini's Turboprop, Elizabeth Shepherd's homage to her hometown Montréal, or any one of Matthew "Doc" Dunn's numerous projects like his collaboration with James Matthew VII & Brian Tysoe which resulted in Some Horses Run, The Cosmic Range's The Gratitude Principle or The Sacred Lamp's self-titled debut. Take your pick. 

For those keeping score at home, the 10 album short list will be announced on July 16th and eleven person Grand Jury will then decide who gets the "Artist Of The Year" award at the Polaris Music Prize Gala at The Carlu in Toronto on September 16.

Here's the 2019 Polaris Music Prize long list

Tim Baker - Forever Overhead
Tanika Charles - The Gumption
Clairmont The Second - Do You Drive?
Charlotte Cornfield - The Shape of Your Name
Marie Davidson - Working Class Woman
Dilly Dally - Heaven
The Dirty Nil - Master Volume
Dizzy - Baby Teeth
Elisapie - The Ballad of the Runaway Girl
FET.NAT - Le Mal
Dominique Fils-Aimé - Stay Tuned!
Fucked Up - Dose Your Dreams
Yves Jarvis - The Same But By Different Means
Carly Rae Jepsen - Dedicated
Kaia Kater - Grenades
Kimmortal - X Marks the Swirl
La Force - La Force
LAL - Dark Beings
Laurence-Anne - Première apparition
Salomé Leclerc - Les choses extérieures
Lee Harvey Osmond - Mohawk
Jean Leloup - L'étrange pays
Shay Lia - Dangerous
Les Louanges - La nuit est une panthère
Loud - Tout ça pour ça
Shawn Mendes - Shawn Mendes
Haviah Mighty - 13th Floor
Operators - Radiant Dawn
Orville Peck - Pony
Sandro Perri - In Another Life
PUP - Morbid Stuff
Lee Reed - The Steal City EP
Jessie Reyez - Being Human In Public
Shad - A Short Story About A War
Snotty Nose Rez Kids - Trapline
Alexandra Stréliski - INSCAPE
sydanie - 999
TOBi - STILL
Voivod - The Wake
Wintersleep - In The Land Of