The Long List for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize is out
The first round of voting is complete for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize. Some 200 professional music nerds from across the country (myself included) first nominated albums for consideration. Voting brought the nominated 189 albums down to this long list of 40 semi-finalists. Another round of balloting next month will reduce this list to a final list of ten.
The annual gala is set for September at which time a Grand Jury will select the best Canadian album of the year, regardless of commercial success. It’s all about musical merit. The winner gets $30,000.
Here is the Long List for 2025, which features two past winners (Backxxwash and Caribou) and 16 first-time nominees.
Art d’Ecco – Serene Demon
Backxwash – Only Dust Remains
Quinton Barnes – CODE NOIR
Bibi Club – Feu de garde
Basia Bulat – Basia’s Palace
Caribou – Honey
Lou-Adriane Cassidy – Journal d’un Loup-Garou
Choses Sauvages – Choses Sauvages III
Cold Specks – Light For The Midnight
Antoine Corriveau – Oiseau de Nuit
Marie Davidson – City Of Clowns
Destroyer – Dan’s Boogie
Myriam Gendron – Mayday
Gloin – All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
Saya Gray – SAYA
Hildegard – Jour 1596
Yves Jarvis – All Cylinders
Kaia Kater – Strange MedicineMedicine
Bells Larsen – Blurring Time
Richard Laviolette – All Wild Things Are Shy
Wyatt C. Louis – Chandler
Kelly McMichael – After The Sting Of It
Men I Trust – Equus Asinus
Mustafa – Dunya
N NAO – Nouveau langage
Nemahsis – Verbathim
Eliza Niemi – Progress Bakery
The OBGMs – SORRY, IT’S OVER
Dorothea Paas – Think Of Mist
Klô Pelgag – Abracadabra
Population II – Maintenant Jamais
Ribbon Skirt – Bite Down
Ariane Roy – Dogue
Mike Shabb – Sewaside III
Sister Ray – Believer
Snotty Nose Rez Kids – RED FUTURE
The Weather Station – Humanhood
Rick White and The Sadies – Rick White and The Sadies
Donovan Woods – Things Were Never Good If They’re Not Good Now
Yoo Doo Right – From the Heights of Our Pastureland
