Polaris Long List - the Real One:

Via CBC Radio 3 the Polaris Music Prize people have released their long list and it looks like this:

Arkells - Jackson Square
Jill Barber - Chances
Beast - Beast
Bell Orchestre - As Seen Through Windows
Bison B.C. - Quiet Earth
Bruce Peninsula - A Mountain Is A Mouth
Coeur De Pirate - Coeur De Pirate
Leonard Cohen - Live In London
D-Sisive - Let The Children Die
Elephant Stone - The Seven Seas
Elliott Brood - Mountain Meadows
Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
Great Lake Swimmers - Lost Channels
Handsome Furs - Face Control
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Hey Rosetta! - Into Your Lungs
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
Junior Boys - Begone Dull Care
K'NAAN - Troubadour
K-OS - YES!
La patère rose - La patère rose
Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Lhasa - Lhasa
Malajube - Labyrinthes
Metric - Fantasies
One Hundred Dollars - Forest Of Tears
Pink Mountaintops - Outside Love
Joel Plaskett - Three
Snailhouse - Lies On The Prize
Charles Spearin - The Happiness Project
Rae Spoon - superioryouareinferior
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Think About Life - Family
Timber Timbre - Timber Timbre
Chad VanGaalen - Soft Airplane
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Patrick Watson - Wooden Arms
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Women - Women
Woodpigeon - Treasury Library Canada C/W Houndstooth Europa

Lots of interesting inclusions and omissions. It does go to show though that who is on the jury has a profound effect on who makes the list. There were a few here that didn't make the NxEW list. Land of Talk and Jill Barber especially got a "Doh!" from me - as things that should have been on our list but weren't. But there were also alot of things on our list that should have been on theirs (IMO). So, the differences are:

Polaris Nominees Overlooked by NxEW:
Jill Barber - Chances
Beast - Beast
Leonard Cohen - Live In London
D-Sisive - Let The Children Die
Elephant Stone - The Seven Seas
Fucked Up - The Chemistry Of Common Life
Tim Hecker - An Imaginary Country
Japandroids - Post-Nothing
K-OS - YES!
La patère rose - La patère rose
Land Of Talk - Some Are Lakes
Lhasa - Lhasa
Malajube - Labyrinthes
Rae Spoon - superioryouareinferior
The Stills - Oceans Will Rise
Think About Life - Family
Martha Wainwright - I Know You're Married But I've Got Feelings Too
Wolf Parade - At Mount Zoomer
Women - Women

NxEW Nominees Overlooked By Polaris (Bearing in mind that our list is much longer and we allowed EP's to stand - because it's not the real thing so why not?)

AC Newman - Get Guilty
Adam & the Amethysts - Amethyst Amulet
Aidan Baker and Tim Hecker - Fantasma Parastasie
Andre Ethier - Born of Blue Fog
Andrew Vincent - Rotten Pear
Attack in Black - Years (By One Thousand Fingertips)
Azeda Booth - In Flesh Tones
Black Hat Brigade - Fathers
Blackout Beach - Skin of Evil
Brian Borcherdt - Coyotes
the Burning Hell - Baby
the CFL Sessions
Dance Yourself to Death - Ready for Love
Deep Dark Woods - Winter Hours
Dog Day - Concentration
Dog is Blue - Makes Ghost Noises
Doug Paisley - Self Titled
Final Fantasy - Spectrum, 14th Century
the Grass Mountain Hobos - Self Titled
the Great Bloomers - Speak of Trouble
Human Highway - Moody Motorcycle
Gentleman Reg - Jet Black
Jason Bajada - Loveshit
Jenn Grant - Echoes
Jon-Rae Fletcher - Oh Maria
Julie Doiron - I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day
Ken Workman & the Union - self titled
Kyrie Kristmanson - Pagan Love
Laura Barrett -Victory Garden
Lovely Feathers - Fantasy of the Lot
Mark Berube - What the Boat Gave the River
Mantrakid - Palmflowerblack
Mother Mother - O My
NQ Arbuckle - XOK
Olenka and the Autumn Lovers - self titled
Pale Air Singers - self titled
Rah Rah - Going Steady
Rock Plaza Central - At The Moment Of Our Most Needing, Or If Only They Could Turn Around, They Would Know They Weren’t Alone
Said The Whale - Howe Sounds/Taking Abalonia
Sebastien Grainger and the Mountains - self titled
Shotgun Jimmie - Still Jimmie
Smothered in Hugs - the Healing Power of Injury
Sunparlour Players - Wave North
Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
Torngat - La Petite Nicole
Weather Station - the Line
Years - self titled

So, already doing a "Shadow Polaris" process has proven worthwhile. There were at least (in my view) 10 glaring omissions by the Polaris jury, and some inclusions that leave me scratching my head. At the very least if our whole ongoing polling project makes a few more people aware of a few more great albums that came out last year it will have been a worthwhile exercise so, vote early and often!