Arcade Fire, Austra, The Weeknd, Braids & More Make Polaris Longlist

Arcade Fire, Braids, The Weeknd and Austra are amongst the names on this year’s Polaris Prize longlist.

The annual award is the Canadian equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, with a panel judging the best album of Canadian origin from the past year. The winner receives $30,000, with last year’s prize going to Karkwa with ‘Les Chemins de verre’.

The initial longlist will be narrowed down to nine albums, each of which will be rewarded with $2,000. The eventual winner will be named on September 19.

The full list reads:

Arcade Fire – ‘The Suburbs’
Austra – ‘Feel It Break’
Black Mountain – ‘Wilderness Heart’
Braids – ‘Native Speaker’
Buck 65 – ‘20 Odd Years’
Louise Burns - ‘Mellow Drama’
D-Sisive - ‘Jonestown 2: Jimmy Go Bye Bye’
The Dears - ‘Degeneration Street’
Destroyer - ‘Kaputt’
Diamond Rings - ‘Special Affections’
Dirty Beaches - ‘Badlands’
Luke Doucet and The White Falcon - ‘Steel City Trawler’
Eternia & MoSS - ‘At Last’
Galaxie - ‘Tigre et Diesel’
Jenn Grant - ‘Honeymoon Punch’
Tim Hecker - ‘Ravedeath, 1972’
Hey Rosetta! - ‘Seeds’
Hooded Fang - ‘Album’
Imaginary Cities - ‘Temporary Resident’
Land Of Talk - ‘Cloak and Cipher’
Little Scream - ‘The Golden Record’
The Luyas - ‘Too Beautiful to Work’
Malajube - ‘La Caverne’
Miracle Fortress - ‘Was I The Wave?’
One Hundred Dollars - ‘Songs of Man’
Doug Paisley - ‘Constant Companion’
PS I Love You - ‘Meet Me at the Muster Station’
Daniel Romano - ‘Sleep Beneath the Willow’
The Rural Alberta Advantage - ‘Departing’
Ron Sexsmith - ‘Long Player Late Bloomer’
Shotgun Jimmie - ‘Transistor Sister’
Sloan - ‘The Double Cross’
Frederick Squire - ‘March 12’
Stars - ‘The Five Ghosts’
Colin Stetson - ‘New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges’
Timber Timbre - ‘Creep On Creepin’ On’
The Weeknd - ‘House of Balloons’
Women - ‘Public Strain’
Neil Young - ‘Le Noise’
Young Galaxy - ‘Shapeshifting’