Polaris Shortlist announced

For those unfamiliar, the Polaris Music Prize, in its third award season since its inception, awards "accolades" and a $20,000 payday to the single best Canadian album (at least 8 songs and plus 30 minutes) of the last year. Any album released in-between June 1, 2007 and May 31, 2008 is eligible.

this year's shortlist, with the winner to be announced September 29th, is:

Black Mountain - In The Future
Basia Bulat - Oh, My Darling
Caribou - Andorra
Kathleen Edwards - Asking For Flowers
Holy Fuck - LP
Plants and Animals - Parc Avenue
Stars - In Our Bedroom After The War
Shad - The Old Prince
Two Hours Traffic - Little Jabs
The Weakerthans - Reunion Tour

I've listened to all of the nominees minus Caribou and Shad's offerings and my early pick is Plants and Animals. A fantastic album, although considering last year's winner was from Montreal and Final Fantasy/Owen Pallet won the first year and his well known Montreal connections, P & A could suffer from a slight Montreal backlash. Of course, this thing is debated on "artistic merit" alone so that couldn't happen.

Now there were 40 albums long-listed a while back so there is bound to be some debate over who didn't make the cut. For my money, The Constantines' Kensington Heights and Welcome to the Night Sky by Wintersleep deserve to be there. Alas, I am no judge or jury.

The Weakerthans cordially invite the rest of the nominees to settle the matter of a winner the old fashioned way. If by old fashioned you mean a croquet tournament, which i do.

Kathleen Edwards' Asking For Flowers

Kathleen Edwards' latest came out about two months ago. I've been playing it fairly constantly since then. Crystal vocals and a songwriter's eye that continues to develop and mature make this , her third album, her strongest to date.

There's a lot to love on the album and I recommend any and all to pick it up and spend a few quiet evenings getting to know it.

Probably my favourite track off the album is Alicia Ross:

Alicia Ross may be a name familiar to anyone who lives in and around the Greater Toronto area. She disappeared in August 2005. Her body would be found later and eventually her neighbour would confess to her murder. In 2007, her neighbour was given a life sentence. Alicia Ross is a song written from the perspective of Alicia. It hits pretty powerful, though I wonder if it would as much if I wasn't already familiar with Alicia's story. I am a girl with a forgettable face, it opens. And I think how much I enjoy the song begins with these opening sentiments. Too often we romanticize the dead. But bookended with the closing words Now I'm a girl who's face they'll never forget, it drives home this idea of a very ordinary person, who in death remained an ordinary person, but had an out of the ordinary experience, which, for the most part, and unfortunately so, will be what most remember of her.

It's a fantastic song. Even better, all royalties from this song are being donated to Project C.A.N.O.E., a charity for "at-risk" youths that now works closely with the Ross family and represents Alicia's great love of the outdoors. So no free download for that. Hit it up at Itunes, or better yet go to ye olde record shoppe and grab the whole album. Also visit AliciaRoss.ca to learn more about Alicia and the various charitable endeavours in her honour.

Asking For Flowers can be found in all the usual hot spots. Get it.