Final Round Voting Open for the Canadian Album Hall of Fame class of 2009

Last round for this year. You nominated and you voted and these are the top 50 albums according to you. Ok, there are actually 52 due to a three way tie for the last spot, NxEW is flexible. Out of these 47 will automatically be nominated next year (and 2005 albums will be eligible) and 5 will be the inaugural class in our Canadian Album Hall of Fame.

Vote as often as you like for as many as you like! - Voting will be open until 11:59 p.m. on November 30!

Canadian Album Hall of Fame Progress Report

When I set up these polls I hide the results, not really to keep you in the dark but because I don't want to reveal how well or poorly anything is doing. It sort of goes along with NxEW's philosophy of trying to stay positive and tell you about things we like rather than things we don't. In other words: It's not that I don't want people who are doing well to see how well they are doing - it's more that I don't want people who are doing poorly to see how poorly they may be doing.

Still, I try to drop hints once in awhile. I also think that the current poll results are interesting as they say something about the ages of NxEW.ca's audience. The oldest album currently in the Top 10 is the Barenaked Ladies Gordon from 1992. Now I'll be the first to say that Canada is undergoing a musical renaissance - that we have more musical talent at the moment than any country in the world (regardless of size or populuation) but are all of the best Canadian albums really from the last 17 years? The top 10 at the moment are:

Weakerthans - Left & Leaving
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Arcade Fire - Funeral
Feist - Let it Die
Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Joel Plaskett - Truthfully, Truthfully
Joel Plaskett - Down at the Khyber
Barenaked Ladies - Gordon
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Sam Roberts - We Were Born in a Flame

It's not over yet though by a long shot. Voting in this round is still open until Nov. 7 - after that the Top 50 (not 10) will be moved into a new poll for a new round of voting. The top 5 albums in that poll will be the inaugural class in NxEW's Canadian Album Hall of Fame and the other 45 will automatically be included in next years poll (which will also include the albums of 2005). Keep voting, it's not done yet.

Voting is Now Open: Canadian Album Hall of Fame

You nominated your favorites - alot of them - so many that I had to create two separate polls to house them all. What we have already is a nice history lesson in Canadian music but we're moving on from there. The voting is now open. Voting in this round will be open until Saturday, November 7 - after which we will go down to a top 50 and another round of voting. Of that top 50 45 will be automatically included in next years vote and 5 will be our inaugural class in NxEW's Canadian Album Hall of Fame.

What Are the Best Canadian Albums Ever?

So, it's still Polaris Music Prize day and just a few hours ago I announced that Julie Doiron won our Shadow Polaris Prize for 2009. Now we're moving straight on to the next question:

What are the best Canadian albums ever?

We'd like your nominations for the Canadian albums you've liked the best but we're taking out any 'flavor of the month' possibilities. Here's how it's going to go. You can nominate any albums that you like in the comments section, Facebook, by emailing northbyeastwest@gmail.com or via Twitter @NxEW.

Nominated albums

1) Must be Canadian

2) Must be a full album (not an EP or a single)

3) Cannot be 'greatest hits' collections although live albums that revisit past material are eligible.

4) The album must be from 2004 or previous - so anything from the dawn of recording until 2004 is acceptable.

It doesn't matter how well the album sold, we're only looking for quality but in order to weed out any albums that are only momentarily popular we want to put a few years between the prize and the recording. So we're looking for the albums that, looking back five years or more, still resonate - the ones that you still listen to, that haven't been relegated to the back of the closet or sold at a used CD place.

Nominations will be open from now until October 10, 2009. After that the voting will begin and the nominees will be whittled down to 50 and then a second round of voting will begin (if your favorite didn't make the top 50 you get a second chance to pick a winner.) The short list, of 5 albums, will ALL be inducted into our album Hall of Fame.

So, let the nominations begin: Nominate your favorites in the comments section, via Facebook, by emailing northbyeastwest@gmail.com or via Twitter @NxEW.

Nominated albums to date (alot more to come)
please don't nominate these again, they can't be more nominated.

Alanis Morissette - 'Jagged Little Pill'
Alexander 'Skip' Spence - Oar
Apostle of Hustle - Folkloric Feel
Arcade Fire - Funeral
The Band - Self Titled
The Band - Music From Big Pink
Barenaked Ladies - Gordon
Barenaked Ladies - Maroon
Blue Rodeo - Five Days In July
Blue Rodeo - Nowhere To Here
Bran Van 3000 - Discosis
Broken Social Scene - You Forgot it in People
Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire
By Divine Right - Bless This Mess
Constantines - Constantines
Constantines - Shine a Light
Cuff the Duke - Life Stories for Minimum Wage
Dan-e-o - The Book of Daniel
Daniel Lanois - For The Beauty Of Wynona
Dears - No Cities Left
Death From Above 1979 - You're a Woman, I'm a Machine
Do Make Say Think - & Yet & Yet
Eric's Trip - Love Tara
Eric's Trip - Purple Blue
Esthero - Breath From Another
Feist: Let It Die
Godspeed You! Black Emporor - Lift Your Skinny Fists Like Antennas to
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - F♯A♯∞
Hayden - The Closer I Get
Hayden - Everything I Long For
Hidden Cameras - Mississauga Goddam
The High Dials - A New Devotion
Inbreds - Kombinator
Ivana Santilli - Brown
Joel Plaskett - In Need of Medical Attention
Joel Plaskett Emergency - Truthfully, Truthfully
Joni Mitchell - Blue
Joni Mitchell - For The Roses
Joni Mitchell - Court and Spark
Junior Boys - Last Exit
Julie Doiron - Goodnight Nobody
Kardinal Offishall - Quest for Fire: Firestarter, vol. 1
K-Os - Exit
Leonard Cohen - Songs From A Room
Leonard Cohen - Various Positions
Limblifter - Self Titled
Matthew Good Band - Audio of Being
Mecca Normal - Mecca Normal
Metric - Old World Underground, Where Are You Now?
Moist - 'Silver'
Neil Young - Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere
Neil Young - Harvest
New Pornographers - Mass Romantic
New Pornographers - Electric Version
North of America - Brothers, Sisters
A Northern Chorus - Before We All Go to Pieces
Our Lady Peace - Naveed
Our Lady Peace - Clumsy
Our Lady Peace - Spiritual Machines
Pilate - Caught By The Window
Raising the Fawn - The North Sea
Rascalz- Cash Crop
Rheostatics - Whale Music
Royal City - Alone At The Microphone
A Silver Mt. Zion - He Has Left Us Alone but Shafts of Light Sometimes
Grace the Corner of Our Rooms…
Skinny Puppy - Bites
Sky - Piece of Paradise
Sloan - Smeared
Sloan - Twice Removed
Stars - Set Yourself on Fire
Stills - Logic Will Break Your Heart
The Super Friendz - Mock Up, Scale Down
Tegan and Sara - If It Was You
Tagan and Sara - So Jealous
Thrush Hermit - Clayton Park
Tragically Hip - Road Apples
Tragically Hip - Fully Completely
The Unicorns - Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?
Venetian Snares - Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding
The Weakerthans - Left & Leaving
The Weakerthans - 'Reconstruction Site'