Happy Long List Day?
June 17, 2010
I have not made a blog post in more than a month because I have been equal parts lazy, busy with preparing to move, and working on the completion of my next album. More about that another day though.
June 17th is a big day for the Canadian music world, as the Polaris Music Prize Long List was announced. As one of the numerous jurors, I cast my votes for the following albums…
#1 = The Got To Get Got – Sahalee
#2 = Ghettosocks – Treat Of The Day
#3 = Evening Hymns – Spirit Guides
#4 = Kae Sun – Lion On A Leash
#5 = The Wooden Sky – If I Don’t Come Home You’ll Know I’m Gone
Ghettosocks and Kae Sun didn’t appear on my Best of 2009 album list, but both are excellent selections that easily could have, and continue to grow on me. I tried to vote strategically, but unfortunately, the results were very minimal. If you visited the link near the top of the page, you’ll notice that only The Wooden Sky actually made it to the next round.
I’m disappointed!
Yes, I’ll certainly be able to find five albums from the list of forty that were selected, and re-tabulate my ballot when the time comes. I just won’t feel as strongly about it because, in my opinion, many of the nominees just aren’t overwhelmingly spectacular.
For example, I would undoubtedly call Holy Fuck one of my favourite bands. I own all of their releases, lots of remixes, rarities & bootlegs, three t-shirts that I wear regularly, and have seen them live seven times. As I said on the jurors message board, Latin doesn’t sound like a huge re-invigoration of their sound, and in turn, it doesn’t wow me as much as their first two albums. It is a very good album, but not one of the best things I’ve heard in recent memory.
In the same kind of way, I have difficulty seeing what is incredibly special about albums by nominees such as The Besnard Lakes, Jason Collett, Frog Eyes, Hannah Georgas, Dan Mangan, The New Pornographers, Plants And Animals, Justin Rutledge, Tegan And Sara, Hawksley Workman, You Say Party! We Say Die!, Young Galaxy, and/or Zeus. Again, they are all very good artists and albums, but it’s hard to differentiate what is so special about them. When you flip it around, I’m sure someone else could easily say the same about my selection of The Got To Get Got.
Overall, I guess it’s interesting to see how name recognition, industry connections, and product visibility can affect the results of a voting process such as this. There isn’t much that complaining will do, so I’ll move on to thinking about how to effectively help my favourite nominees make the short list.
