Who do you think will win? Who do you want to win? Who would you be okay with winning? Who do you think shouldn't win? Who do you think should have been short listed but wasn't?

 

http://www.polarismusicprize.ca/2011/

 

The short list contenders for this year's Polaris Music Prize are, in alphabetical order:

 

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Austra - Feel It Break

Braids - Native Speaker

Destroyer - Kaputt

Galaxie - Tigre et Diesel

Hey Rosetta! - Seeds

Ron Sexsmith - Long Player Late Bloomer

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges

Timber Timbre - Creep on Creepin' On

The Weeknd - House of Balloons

I've only heard four of these albums (Arcade Fire, Braids, Hey Rosetta!, The Weeknd). They're all quite good, so I'd be OK with any of those winning.

Check out Destroyer. I think you would like it.

Arcade Fire has won enough. :\

 

Braids and Destroyer have outstanding albums, either one of them.

I'll be doing coverage on the 10 albums on my blog in the upcoming weeks. I'll post links here when they are complete.

Check out Destroyer. I think you would like it.

 

OOOH, a personal recommendation from Briggins. I'm flattered. :blush:

 

Mkay. I'll put it on my list of things to look into. :nice:

 

Arcade Fire has won enough. :\

 

Yeah, true. :\

OOOH, a personal recommendation from Briggins. I'm flattered. :blush:

 

Mkay. I'll put it on my list of things to look into. :nice:

 

 

 

Yeah, true. :\

 

IT has lots of sax on it. :)

Canadians have an unfair amount of awesome bands :phu:

 

And yeah, even considering how much I love Arcade Fire, they've won enough prizes this year so it'd be nice if Hey Rosetta! or Braids win.

I don't think that winning previous awards should decide if it wins or not though....

 

 

....punishing it for being successful?

IT has lots of sax on it. :)

 

Oh yeah? That sounds neat. :D

 

I don't think that winning previous awards should decide if it wins or not though....

 

Well, no. We were only saying that it'd be nice to see an equally solid album win, which I believe we have in the shortlist.

The only change I would consider making to this shortlist is a replacement of either Austra or Ron Sexsmith with Stars. Then it'd be absolutely golden.

If I were to pick a top 10 from the long list (http://polarismusicprize.ca/2011-long-list/) this is who I would take.

 

Arcade Fire - The Suburbs

Destroyer - Kaputt

Diamond Rings - Special Affections

Hey Rosetta! - Seeds

Hooded Fang - Album

Land Of Talk - Cloak and Cipher

Daniel Romano - Sleep Beneath the Willow

The Rural Alberta Advantage - Departing

Shotgun Jimmie - Transistor Sister

Stars - The Five Ghosts

If Arcade Fire wins I'll rage

go away arcade fire

music fans are funny.

I don't think that winning previous awards should decide if it wins or not though....

 

 

....punishing it for being successful?

 

No, I just think it'd be nice to see another people winning.

 

I'll always love AF anyway :dazzled:

I personally don't even feel like The Suburbs deserved half the awards it got. Funeral should have won awards, Neon Bible should have won a few too.

The Polaris wasn't even around when Funeral came out, I'm guessing it would have had a good chance to win.

Not so much Polaris, but any other awards. Funeral is their best album! :)

I personally don't even feel like The Suburbs deserved half the awards it got. Funeral should have won awards, Neon Bible should have won a few too.

 

"The Suburbs" was what really got me into Arcade Fire hardcore. It really appealed to me in a way that the other two couldn't. Some of it had to do with the fact that I felt Win's vocals sounded so much better on that record. It's not that Win's voice is bad before that, but in the earlier records, I found that it was more of an acquired taste for me. (I still really dislike "Crown of Love" due to the vocals. No lie.) It was also just more accessible for me. Honestly, it helped me appreciate them more as a whole. I got so much more into the other two albums after listening to "The Suburbs" because I felt like I had a better understanding of them-or something. I'm not really sure what I mean at this point.

You must hate their self-titled EP. It pains me to see people ripping on Woodlands National Anthem because Regine belts out, it's just such a beautiful warm song. Crown Of Love is probably my second least favorite off of Funeral. They do play it live, and you might have even caught it if you've seen them on their most recent tour. :)

 

Of course, I can't talk much about Arcade Fire shows because I never have and probably never will get to see one. They haven't been to Michigan in seven years, I don't understand why they can't schedule a date at the palace of auburn hills if they're so big. I just cannot STAND their manager... or the fact that they've toured the UK so extensively and did three shows in Chicago while brushing off Michigan and Ohio. But I give up, they'll tour where it sells out completely. I was pissed for a little while because they've been giving Montreal the cold shoulder, but they're remedying that in September.

 

I just want to see one show. :(

"The Suburbs" was what really got me into Arcade Fire hardcore. It really appealed to me in a way that the other two couldn't. Some of it had to do with the fact that I felt Win's vocals sounded so much better on that record. It's not that Win's voice is bad before that, but in the earlier records, I found that it was more of an acquired taste for me. (I still really dislike "Crown of Love" due to the vocals. No lie.) It was also just more accessible for me. Honestly, it helped me appreciate them more as a whole. I got so much more into the other two albums after listening to "The Suburbs" because I felt like I had a better understanding of them-or something. I'm not really sure what I mean at this point.

 

I'm glad you pointed out the vocals part. That is one thing that really stood out to me as well. Funeral is definitely my favourite by them, but the Suburbs isn't that far behind. I guess the new songs do have the emotional feelings of their first album, but don't quite have the same punch live.

 

Honestly I find it stupid people saying that they don't want them to win because they have already won a lot or that they are sick of Arcade Fire winning. Are you saying you would have rather had Beiber and Katty Perry take home the awards? Or maybe have Ron Sexsmith take home the Polaris this year just so somebody else gets a chance. This is the year of Arcade Fire, this is the last big award they're up for and after this it will be somebody else's turn to be successful and dominate the awards...if anybody is up for the challenge.

 

When I listen through the top 10 albums there, I find some of them are kind of cool like the Destroyer album or Braids. But other ones like Galaxie, Ron Sexsmith, and as much as I love Timber Timbre and a few other bands, just don't come anywhere near the Suburbs.

 

I hope the grand jury uses their brains and doesn't just try to do something different. And if they try to just be different by not voting for the Suburbs because of it's success, then I have given up all faith in the Polaris and think it needs to be overhauled.

You must hate their self-titled EP. It pains me to see people ripping on Woodlands National Anthem because Regine belts out, it's just such a beautiful warm song. Crown Of Love is probably my second least favorite off of Funeral. They do play it live, and you might have even caught it if you've seen them on their most recent tour. :)

 

Yeah, I'm not the biggest fan of it. Heh. I still have it, though. It's funny that you bring up Regine, as she was the reason I got into Arcade Fire in the first place. I listened to "Haiti" on a mixtape and enjoyed it. (I didn't know beforehand that she sang.)

 

Alas, I haven't seen them live. Or any modern artist, for that matter. :bigcry:

 

I'm glad you pointed out the vocals part. That is one thing that really stood out to me as well. Funeral is definitely my favourite by them, but the Suburbs isn't that far behind. I guess the new songs do have the emotional feelings of their first album, but don't quite have the same punch live.

 

Honestly I find it stupid people saying that they don't want them to win because they have already won a lot or that they are sick of Arcade Fire winning. Are you saying you would have rather had Beiber and Katty Perry take home the awards? Or maybe have Ron Sexsmith take home the Polaris this year just so somebody else gets a chance. This is the year of Arcade Fire, this is the last big award they're up for and after this it will be somebody else's turn to be successful and dominate the awards...if anybody is up for the challenge.

 

I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels that way. :D

 

See, that's the whole point, Briggs. It's not fun watching one artist, as you said, "dominate the awards." I know the awards aren't really about what's fun, so much as what's good. I have nothing against Arcade Fire or "The Suburbs" (I did, after all, rank it #2 in my AOTY list last year). Still, "The Suburbs" has been out so much longer than the other albums, and it has won so many awards. Honestly, because of that, I think Arcade Fire has an unfair advantage.

For an award based on artistic merit, the length it has been out and previous successes shouldn't factor into the equation.

Should it? No. Do some people still consider that anyway? Yes.