The Polaris Music Prize is Canada's version of the UK's Mercury Prize, an award given to the best album by a Canadian band. Since 2006, the prize has gone to Final Fantasy—before Owen Pallett dropped the moniker—Caribou, and Fucked Up, and now this year's shortlist nominees have been announced. Arcade Fire is no surprise, having earned almost every other possible accolade for third album The Suburbs, including an ire-inducing Album Of The Year Grammy and a stellar headlining performance at Coachella. Other nominees include Native Speaker, the debut album from Braids, Destroyer's ninth album Kaputt, and the dark horse candidate The Weeknd, whose mixtape House Of Balloons was only available as a free download in a blog post.
The full list of nominees is below. The winner will be announced September 6th.
Arcade Fire – The Suburbs
Austra — Feel It Break
Braids — Native Speaker
Colin Stetson — New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges
Destroyer — Kaputt
Galaxie — Tigre et diesel
Hey Rosetta — Seeds
Ron Sexsmith — Long Player Late Bloomer
Timber Timbre — Creep On Creepin’ On
The Weeknd — House Of Balloons