Annual Canadian hoo-hah reveals 2014 nominees.

After last year’s winners Godspeed You! Black Emperor poured scorn on the award-giving, it’ll be interesting to see how artists react to this year’s Polaris Music Prize.

The longlist has now been revealed, and includes Drake’s Nothing Was The Same and Tim Hecker’s Virgins as well as recent albums by Jessy Lanza, Austra, BADBADNOTGOOD, Owen Pallett and Yamantaka // Sonic Titan.

The 40 albums will be condensed into a shortlist of 10 on July 15, with the winner announced at a Toronto gala at the Carlu on September 22. The prize money is $30,000.

Nominees:

Arcade Fire – Reflektor
AroarA – In the Pines
Austra – Olympia
Philippe B – Ornithologie, la nuit
BADBADNOTGOOD – III
Basia Bulat – Tall Tall Shadow
Chromeo – White Women
Cousins – The Halls of Wickwire
Cowboy Junkies / Various – The Kennedy Suite
The Darcys – Warring
Dead Obies – Montréal $ud
Mac DeMarco – Salad Days
DIANA – Perpetual Surrender
Drake – Nothing Was the Same
Freedom Writers – NOW
Fresh Snow – I
Frog Eyes – Carey’s Cold Spring
Gorguts – Colored Sands
Tim Hecker – Virgins
Jimmy Hunt – Maladie d’amour
Jessy Lanza – Pull My Hair Back
Kalle Mattson – Someday, the Moon Will Be Gold
Moonface – Julia with Blue Jeans On
Mounties – Thrash Rock Legacy
Odonis Odonis – Hard Boiled Soft Boiled
Owen Pallett – In Conflict
Pink Mountaintops – Get Back
PUP – PUP
The Sadies – Internal Sounds
Shad – Flying Colours
Shooting Guns – Brotherhood of the Ram
Solids – Blame Confusion
Rae Spoon – My Prairie Home
The Strumbellas – We Still Move on Dance Floors
Tanya Tagaq – Animism
Thus Owls – Turning Rocks
Timber Timbre – Hot Dreams
Chad VanGaalen – Shrink Dust
Bry Webb – Free Will
Yamantaka // Sonic Titan – UZU