Calgary pop duo Tegan and Sara, Montreal art-rockers Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Toronto new-wave band Metric are among the artists who have made the 40-album Polaris Music Prize long list.
The list of contenders was announced Thursday in Montreal.
It will be narrowed to a 10-album short list on July 16, with the winner to be announced at a performance gala Sept. 23 in Toronto.
The diverse long list features a number of artists being recognized by Polaris for the first time.
Among those newcomers are Montreal singer/songwriter Mac DeMarco, indie-R&B act Rhye (which features Toronto-raised vocalist Mike Milosh) and Winnipeg metal outfit KEN Mode.
Other acts on the list include: the Besnard Lakes, Louis-Jean Cormier, Kid Koala, Majical Cloudz and Purity Ring from Montreal; Toronto's Evening Hymns, Lindi Ortega, Hayden, Metz and Daniel Romano; and Hannah Georgas, A.C. Newman and Young Galaxy from Vancouver.
Dan Snaith, the Dundas, Ont.-reared composer who won the 2008 Polaris for Caribou's Andorra, nabbed a long list spot for his Jiaolong project, recorded as Daphni.
Other prior winners of the $30,000 Polaris include Feist, Arcade Fire and Karkwa.
The 2013 Polaris Music Prize Long List:
- A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation
- Alaclair Ensemble – Les maigres blancs d'Amérique du Noir
- ANCIIENTS – Heart of Oak
- The Besnard Lakes – Until In Excess, Imperceptible UFO
- Louis-Jean Cormier – Le Treizième Étage
- Daphni – JIAOLONG
- Mac DeMarco – 2
- Evening Hymns – Spectral Dusk
- Hannah Georgas – Hannah Georgas
- Godspeed You! Black Emperor – 'Allelujah! Don't Bend! Ascend!
- Chilly Gonzales – Solo Piano II
- Jim Guthrie – Takes Time
- Hayden – Us Alone
- Zaki Ibrahim – Every Opposite
- KEN mode – Entrench
- Kid Koala – 12 bit Blues
- Kobo Town – Jumbie in the Jukebox
- Pierre Lapointe – Punkt
- Lee Harvey Osmond – The Folk Sinner
- Les soeurs Boulay – Le poids des confettis
- Corb Lund – Cabin Fever
- The Luyas – Animator
- Majical Cloudz – Impersonator
- Metric – Synthetica
- METZ – METZ
- Danny Michel with the Garifuna Collective – Black Birds Are Dancing Over Me
- AC Newman – Shut Down The Streets
- Old Man Luedecke – Tender is The Night
- Lindi Ortega – Cigarettes & Truckstops
- Peter Peter – Une version améliorée de la tristesse
- Purity Ring – Shrines
- Rah Rah – The Poet's Dead
- Rhye – Woman
- Daniel Romano – Come Cry With Me
- Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
- Suuns – Images du futur
- Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob
- Al Tuck – Stranger at the Wake
- Whitehorse – The Fate of the World Depends On This Kiss
- Young Galaxy – Ultramarine