I had one of those Polaris moments last night. Hey, Old Man Luedecke didn't make the list! Last year, it was Mother Mother who got dissed (in my opinion).
Who doesn't make the list generates almost as much discussion as who does, but official purpose aside (see below), love it, hate it or ignore it, the Polaris prize gets us talking about the music we love and music we have yet to discover and appreciate.
"The Polaris Music Prize is Canada's first juried award for creative artistic achievement in recorded music. This national critic's prize honours the full-length album as an art form and awards a cash prize of $20,000 to the artist or artists who create the best album of the year." (Which in this case is June 1, 2009 through May 31, 2010; albums must be at least 30 minutes long or at least eight songs.)