My second ballot for the
Polaris Music Prize is due tonight at midnight. Three of my five picks from the
first ballot made it through to the
Long List, so I only needed to choose two more albums. This time around I’ve got some more Vancouver love and more high-production pop.
I’ve already explained the first three, so I’ll keep those brief. Okay, enough preamble? Let’s get onto the good stuff.
1. Apollo Ghosts – Mount Benson
As I touched on last week in a tour announcement story for
Exclaim!, it’s amazing that a label-less cult band like Apollo Ghosts can make it through to the second round of the Polaris Prize. That, I think, says everything about how effective this process is.
MP3: “Coka-Cola Admen”
2. Holy Fuck – Latin
This album seems to have flown under the radar, so I’m happy that it made it to the Long List. The more I listen to it, the more I love the blend of blissful synths and aggressive dance rock madness.
MP3: “Latin America”
3. The Besnard Lakes – The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night
Of all of my first ballot picks, this was the only one that I was sure would make it. The Besnard Lakes have been Short Listed
before, and here’s betting that they do it again. They probably don’t need my help in doing it, but I’m trying not to be strategic about this.
MP3: “Albatross”
4. You Say Party! We Say Die! – XXXX
As I recently wrote about for
Exclaim!, the band is now known simply as
You Say Party following the tragic passing of drummer Devon Clifford. The band’s final album under the old moniker is a gorgeous, new wave-y rumination on loneliness with love as its constant, guiding muse. (I made that sound pretentious. It’s great, you guys!)
MP3: “Laura Palmer’s Prom”
5. Dan Mangan – Nice, Nice, Very Nice
Not too long ago, Dan put on one of the
best local shows I’ve ever seen. That isn’t a factor for Polaris, but still—it was so fucking good. This husky-voiced Vancouverite is a hometown hero; if he can make it onto the Short List, he’ll officially be a Canadian hero. And with
Arts & Crafts releasing
Nice, Nice, Very Nice in the US later this summer, who knows what’s next. Cue up the title-related puns.
MP3: “Robots” 
