Here's everyone who made it onto the 2020 Polaris Long List

Halifax's own Aquakultre and Joel Plaskett both made the cut.

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Here's everyone who made it onto the 2020 Polaris Long List

CAITLIN CRONENBERG

Aquakultre—the brainchild of Lance Sampson (right)—produced one of 2020's best records with the sumptuous R&B effort Legacy.

This afternoon, the most prestigious award in Canadian music—sorry Junos, we're talking about the Polaris Prize—announced its long list (as in, the list of all the Canadian albums released since last spring that are in the running for the $50,000 prize). These 40 albums will be parsed through by the Polaris's 201-member jury before the short list lands in July. (The best album of the year gets to collect its crown in mid-September.)

While the baffling inclusion of The Weeknd's After Hours has us scratching our heads (the Polaris doesn't really need to be daylighting the global top earner on Spotify, surely), others had us screaming with delight from our home offices—namely: The nods to WHOOP-Szo's Anishinaabe, shoegazed-streaked metal Warrior Down; BACKXWASH's relentless assault on your ears, God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out of It and, of course, the neo-soul feast of a lifetime that is Aquakultre's Legacy.

Rounding out the list was the following:

Allie X: Cape God
Anachnid: Dreamweaver
Aquakultre: Legacy
Marie-Pierre Arthur: Des feux pour voir
Backxwash: God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It
Badge Époque Ensemble: Badge Époque Ensemble
Begonia: Fear
P'tit Belliveau: Greatest Hits Vol. 1
Caribou: Suddenly
Daniel Caesar: CASE STUDY 01
Chocolat: Jazz engagé
Louis-Jean Cormier: Quand la nuit tombe
Corridor: Junior
dvsn: A Muse In Her Feelings
Jacques Greene: Dawn Chorus
Sarah Harmer: Are You Gone
Ice Cream: FED UP
Junia-T: Studio Monk
Kaytranada: Bubba
Flore Laurentienne: Volume 1
Cindy Lee: What's Tonight To Eternity?
Men I Trust: Oncle Jazz
nêhiyawak: nipiy
OBUXUM: Re-Birth
Owen Pallett: Island
Pantayo: Pantayo
Lido Pimienta: Miss Colombia
Joel Plaskett: 44
William Prince: Reliever
Jessie Reyez: BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US
Riit: ataataga
Andy Shauf: The Neon Skyline
Super Duty Tough Work: Studies in Grey
U.S. Girls: Heavy Light
Leif Vollebekk: New Ways
Wares: Survival
The Weeknd: After Hours
WHOOP-Szo: Warrior Down
Witch Prophet : DNA Activation
Zen Bamboo: GLU

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Morgan Mullin

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Morgan was the Arts & Entertainment Editor at The Coast, where she wrote about everything from what to see and do around Halifax to profiles of the city’s creative class to larger cultural pieces. She started with The Coast in 2016.