Part one of this preview is here. I dove into the longlist here (paywall temporarily suspended). You can find the shortlist here.
Is there anyone other than prize sponsor CBC—writing about the Polaris shortlist? Please tell me if so. It ain’t the Giller, folks. (Polaris also has no corporate sponsors at the moment, so call off any planned protests.)
The Polaris Music Prize gala is at Massey Hall next Tuesday, September 17. You can buy tickets here and use the promo code POLARIS25 for 25% off. All but two of the shortlisters are performing, while Allison Russell is sending a ballet troupe in her place, and Cindy Lee is sending… something (TBD).
(This week’s live music listings are here.)
Without further ado, here’s a deep dive into the other 5/10 shortlisters and five more we should be talking about.
The contenders:
Jeremy Dutcher – Motewolonuwok
The album: For the past four years I’ve wondered how Dutcher could top his Polaris-winning 2017 debut, Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa. An operatically trained voice recasting traditional songs in a near-extinct language: the music was as good, if not better, than the compelling story behind it.
Here, Dutcher expands his palette (and hired Owen Pallett), singing sometimes in English and moving gently toward pop—or at least, a definition of pop tilted toward late-period Joni Mitchell, Perfume Genius and Mark Hollis. It’s (yet another) impressive achievement by one of the most fascinating artists today, Canadian or otherwise.
Excellent CBC piece by Melody Lau is here. My 2022 conversation with Dutcher is here.
This clip focuses on the choral contributions to the album:
The chances: Non-existent. No disrespect to Dutcher, for whom I have great respect, or to this work, but I simply cannot see Polaris awarding an artist two albums in a row, especially if the two aren’t drastically different. This album is most definitely an evolution, but very much an extension of the debut.
If competition was considered weak, though, this could easily win.
Elisapie – Inuktitut
The album: A late Gen-Xer covers songs of her youth in her endangered native language. There are myriad reasons why this works politically and in the context of Elisapie Isaac and her family history (an uncle was in one of the first Inuit rock bands, Sugluk; she sang with them as a teen).
It works musically, as well: the quiet power of Elisapie’s voice, and the two Montreal heavyweights who contribute the most to the arrangements: guitarist Joe Grass (Lil Andy) and drummer Robbie Kuster (Patrick Watson).
That said: this is, ultimately, a covers album of extremely popular songs delivered in delicate, slow tempos. Language aside, it’s a well-worn concept. For me, the conceit wears off pretty quickly, primarily because most of these songs are so iconic (Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here) and heard ad nauseum at open stages everywhere. Elisapie is reclaiming them in a unique way, but when it comes to covers I prefer musical surprises that aren’t just dirge-y.
I will say, though, that I was unaware of this delightful disco dorkiness until hearing Elisapie’s considerably different version.
Can never go wrong with this song, though, in any context:
The chances: Slim to none. I can’t see a covers album—especially one focused on classic-hits radio staples—winning Polaris. If it’s any consolation, Elisapie did get onto a postage stamp this year.
NoBro – Set Your Pussy Free
The album: This gets a big two-devil’s-horn salute. These Montreal ladies are full-on FUBAR and givin’ ’er. The missing link between AC/DC and Avril Lavigne. Joan Jett fronting Sum 41. Much ass is kicked.
“Delete Delete Delete” is an all-timer of an anthem for the extremely online (i.e. everyone). “Let’s Do Drugs” is a banger for the burnouts. “Nobody Knows” twists Black Sabbath’s “Iron Man” around just enough to avoid a lawsuit.
On the other hand, “I Don’t Feel Like It” sounds like mall punk from an early 2000s Disney flick—for me, a bad thing. While shuffling the shortlist one day, I thought that track was randomly inserted by a lost algorithm.
NoBro are scrappy, late-blooming underdogs, but they got some pro help here: Thomas D’arcy (of Toronto bands the Darcys and Small Sins), who’s worked with July Talk and the Sheepdogs, is a co-writer; Grammy winner Dave Schiffman is the producer, who’s worked with Pup but also a who’s-who of ’90s alt-rock and modern pop. The result sounds like a million bucks.
NoBro are an exceptional live band. At the Hillside Festival last summer, they packed a tent with more than 1,000 people in it and absolutely slayed. By the time they closed with MC5’s “Kick Out the Jams,” it was as perfect a rock show as I’ve ever seen.
Having said all that, half of this album is much better than the other half. Maybe they’re best enjoyed in an EP format, or maybe they’re just hitting their stride and the next album will be—as another Canadian band once said—all killer no filler.
Fun fact: Prize sponsor CBC Radio refuses to say the full name of this album. They repeatedly blanked out the p-word during the on-air shortlist rollout. And yet: I’m quite sure I’ve heard Russian dissidents Pussy Riot identified in news stories. Set the pussy free, indeed!
The chances: Fair. If only because this year seems like one big wild card.
Allison Russell – The Returner
The album: In darkness, it’s hard to imagine light. Allison Russell’s debut solo record dealt mainly with dark corners of her history; her follow-up is all about the light. When it came out, I wrote that “The Returner is basically an album-long folkie rewrite of ‘I Will Survive.’ Which is what the world needs now.”
From my 2023 year-end blurb:
Exorcism doesn’t usually sound this beautiful. But that’s what Russell is doing here: slaying demons, burying past lives, rebuilding, renewing, singing requiems. In doing so, her music is consistently joyous: it’s a celebration of the present and future possibilities, illustrated with traditions from folk to disco. Much like her breakthrough solo album Outside Child, with each new song you think, “Isn’t this a classic cover?” Russell is writing a new canon. She doesn’t even need all the name-dropping that she’s now entitled to do.
The chances: Normally I’d say “none”: an artist on the folk-roots spectrum has never yet won over a Polaris jury, which skews young, and is unlikely to in this modern world. But Russell’s album is excellent, she has a high profile (even if it’s mostly because of famous friends named Joni and Brandi), and there’s a lot of goodwill because of who she is overall—and no, that’s not a racial euphemism, I’m talking about her character.
So I’m tempted to say her chances are “good” but because of the anti-folk bias I’m going to settle on “fair.”
I would be very pleasantly shocked if this won. So shock me!
She’s not playing the gala (she’s starting a three-night stint with Hozier in L.A. that night), but is sending a ballet troupe in her place—a Polaris first.
Tobi – Panic
The album: This is anything but a one-dimensional rap record, and it might be my favourite in the genre to shortlist since SNRK’s Trapline. Tobi can sing like D’Angelo (“She Loves Me”), rap like a stallion (“Flatline”), put out straight-up Kaytranada-esque party tracks (“Move”) and do just about anything in between on this, his third album (not his second, CBC fact-checkers).
He’s been shortlisted before, and won a pair of Junos for this record earlier this year, and yet should be far better known than he is. Maybe he’s got too many old-school skills for the modern hip-hop mainstream. If Spotify streams are any indication, he does, however, have exponentially more streams than recent Polaris winners, rap or otherwise (Haviah Mighty is a pleasantly surprising exception.) What do I know about modern rap? Nothing.
Excellent piece by Kyle Mullin at Exclaim here.
The chances: Fair to good, based on recent Polaris trends. If Tobi wins, he’ll be the second Nigerian-born Canadian in a row to take Polaris, after Debby Friday. And four of the last five winners would then be African-born Canadian, after 2022 winner Pierre Kwenders of the DRC and 2020 winner Backxwash, born in Zambia.
And if he wins, he’ll owe a debt to the not dissimilar Shad—the eternal bridesmaid in Polaris history.
Some records that I voted for, or almost voted for, that are not shortlisted but should still be in the conversation:
The coulda-woulda-shouldas
Terra Lightfoot – Healing Power
The album: I loved this album before I played it driving through the Kawarthas on a summer day with all the windows down, and loved it even more afterwards. Reuniting with producer Gus Van Go, who brings out the best in this powerhouse performer, was a wise move.
In my 2023 year-end list I wrote:
… her most powerful songwriting to date, full of hooks and riffs and soaring choruses and delivered with an almost glam-rock stomp, with a killer band matching her intensity note for note and not a single weak track.
And later raved:
When she’s not rocking out with maximum cowbell (“Long Way Down”), she writes slightly Motown-y, finger-snappin’ pop songs like “Kept You in My Pocket,” “The Only One of Your Kind” and “Anyone But Me.”
Much has been made of the fact that Lightfoot sounds all aglow and downright happy on this album — it’s public news that she recently got married and moved to the woods of cottage country. But the kiss-off songs here are just as powerful: “Fired My Man” and “You Don’t Get Me Now,” because whoever that other guy was, she’s definitely “doing better without [him].”
On top of that, she’s a total mensch, which is why everyone wants to work with her (including Blue Rodeo drummer Glenn Milchem, seen in the video below):
Why it didn’t shortlist: No idea, other than that maybe there was only room for two rock records on the shortlist, splitting votes between the Beaches and NoBro. And maybe there was only room for one record produced by Gus Van Go (the Beaches). No matter: Lightfoot’s had a banner year.
Corb Lund – El Viejo
The album: Who opens a record with a line like, “I guess it depends on what you mean by collusion”?! Corb Lund, that’s who. I’m a big fan, and have been for more than 20 years. He’s featured prominently in Hearts on Fire. He’s made at least three of my favourite country—sorry, western, because there’s a difference—records of all time, and this is yet another one. Some Lund records are better than others; this is one of the best. Recorded acoustically live in studio, it’s definitely a tribute to his skilled band and his own jazz training.
But as always, it’s the songwriting that stands out: stylistically, the arrangements, and definitely lyrically. Songs about card players are, naturally, about a lot more than that. There’s a tribute to his friend and late mentor, Ian Tyson. There’s a song about “Redneck Rehab.” There’s a song called “Insha’Allah” about T.E. Lawrence and the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans. Chicks and trucks this ain’t—though there is a “Girl With a Stratocaster.”
And in the clip below, there’s what he muses “might be the first country blues MMA song ever written,” in which he sings, “All I want to do is go out on a win.” He’s got a lot more left in him; this is definitely a win.
Why it didn’t even longlist: a) Albertan country music; b) an old-man record literally named after an old man; c) Because Corb Lund makes this all sound deceptively easy.
Midswim – Sneak Behind the Dreams in Your Head
The album: Understated, soft brilliance that sounds like Suzanne Vega if she was from a small city in southwestern Ontario instead of the Upper West Side.
Last fall I wrote:
There’s nothing showy about what [Claire] Whitehead does: far from it. She is a master of Aimee Mann-ish subtlety, underdelivering beautiful melodies with sharp lyrics in a way that draws you in closer. There’s a bit of Liz Phair in low-key mode, as well as more than a bit of early Owen Pallett. “Sidewalk” was the song here that floored me, the song that stuck in my head for weeks. The more time I spent with the rest of the album, the more I realized that song is far from a fluke.
Whitehead has been around a few blocks: I first saw her playing violin with Forest City Lovers in the late 2000s, and more recently with Nicolette and the Nobodies. She put out a country record in 2021 under her own name (working with Peter Elkas and Dani Nash), and once had a rock trio called Carew. This is, in some ways, her debut as a solo artist. From what I can tell, it was released to little or no fanfare outside her immediate social circles. That should change starting—today!
Why it didn’t even longlist: Pretty sure I’m one of a dozen people who heard this record.
Population II – Électrons libres du Québec
The album: What if King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard grew up in Quebec and were raised on NoMeansNo and Can? If any of those words make any sense to you, then Population II is your new favourite band. This is an amazing psych-prog trio to see live, and they managed to bottle that on this album.
Note: they’re playing the Project Nowhere festival in Toronto the first week of October.
Why it didn’t shortlist: Was quite surprised it didn’t, to be honest. I thought this kind of music was having a moment, crossing over between metalheads, neo-prog fans, jam bands and anyone who enjoys having their face melted off. Population II does this better than most.
La Securité – Stay Safe
The album: Wrote this back in January, before a killer show at the Monarch Tavern:
It’s fucking cold outside. It’s January in Montreal. You heard about the gig from a friend of a friend. You saw a poster with collage art clinging to a St. Laurent post by a thin thread of tape. You saw somebody mention it on Stillepost.
The show might be in pre-gentrified Old Montreal, after everything closes and all the tourists disappear. The show might be above a storefront in the Plateau, in the loft of someone hoping to make their rent that night. The show might be in a recording studio in an industrial part of Mile End, or deep in Parc X where you’d never expect to see live music.
It could be 1982. It could be 1994. It could be 2003. It could be this weekend.
Either way, the band at that gig is La Sécurité. Or it sounds like them.
Your glasses fog up immediately inside the non-venue. You throw your jacket and your many other layers in a corner somewhere, hoping no one spills beer on them. They will smell like smoke by the end of the night. The room is filled with art students and people pretending to be art students. Nobody has any money. Thrift store chic rules.
The band is mixed gender, English and French, Montreal natives and come-from-aways. (Fact check: other than the gender split, I don’t know if the rest is true of La Sécurité.) There’s disco, new wave, punk, noise, vintage instruments and a whole lot of dancing — there is no one in the room not dancing. When the band plays their one ballad, everyone in the audience drapes themselves around each other and starts making out.
The band ends. The DJ plays Pylon, Depeche Mode, Lizzie Mercier Descloux, ESG and Delta 5. Maybe the Bush Tetras, or Le Tigre. Probably something French you’ve never heard before.
When the lights go on, you layer up and brave the snowy streets, where somehow it’s even colder than it was when you arrived.
It wasn’t a dream. It wasn’t a time machine. It was La Sécurité.
Why it didn’t shortlist: I think it’s a good record by a great live band, not best-of-the-year status yet. Also, as much as people talk about a so-called “indie sleaze” revival, I’m not sure critics are ready to endorse the next wave of this sound. Prove me wrong!
The winner:
Last year (Debby Friday) was the first time I called it in five years (it was Dutcher before that). Prior to that, I called half of the dozen winners. So don’t trust anything I say. In fact, I’m not even going to say anything, lest I jinx it. If you’ve read this far, you’ll know I think four records have a decent shot at the $50,000 prize. I’m going to be surprised no matter what.
The gala will be livestreamed on CBC … I think. Haven’t actually seen any info on that yet.
You actually read this far! Congrats, music fan, this is for you: