Vote in the Shadow Polaris

The Polaris Music Prize is one of the most hotly debated topics on the CBC Radio 3 blog. Nominees are too commercial (Arcade Fire won last year). Nominees aren't commercial enough (Drake didn't make the list in 2011, but did this year). How could judges leave this album off? (Ahem, Brasstronaut's Mean Sun). How could they include that album?



Part of the reason Polaris is so polarizing is because the criteria is so open-ended:

"Polaris recognizes and markets albums of the highest artistic integrity, without regard to musical genre, professional affiliation, or sales history. It is adjudicated by selected music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers."


"Artistic integrity." That's it.


There are a lot of great albums from Radio 3 bands and artists on the 2012 long list: Marie-Pierre Arthur, Rich Aucoin, Handsome Furs, Fucked Up (who won in 2009, confounding music journalists everywhere), Great Lake Swimmers, Parlovr and more. If you want to voice your opinion about what you think is the best Canadian album of 2012, you can get in on the voting action. For the fourth year, our friends over at www.nxew.ca are running the Shadow Polaris. The 40 long-listed albums are automatically included, so this is your chance to nominate albums you think the jury overlooked. (Ahem, Brasstronaut's Mean Sun).