By David Topping

The jury for the Polaris Prize—the twenty thousand dollar prize for the best Canadian album, chosen solely on the incredibly subjective measure that is “artistic merit”—has whittled down their forty-album long list to ten finalists, to be picked and announced on September 21. The finalists: Elliott BROOD, Mountain Meadows; Fucked Up, The Chemistry Of Common Life; Great Lake Swimmers, Lost Channels; Hey Rosetta!, Into Your Lungs (and around in your heart and on through your blood); K’NAAN, Troubadour; Malajube, Labyrinthes; Metric, Fantasies; Joel Plaskett, Three; Chad VanGaalen, Soft Airplane; and Patrick Watson, Wooden Arms.