Get to know the 10 albums nominated for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize
Bibi Club, Nemahsis, Yves Jarvis and more have landed on this year’s list
The short list for the 2025 Polaris Music Prize has been announced, with 10 albums vying for the $30,000 grand prize.
Of the albums, one will be awarded the prize, which is based solely on artistic merit without consideration for genre, record sales or popularity. Check out the list below:
- Bibi Club, Feu de garde.
- Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Journal d'un Loup-Garou.
- Marie Davidson, City of Clowns.
- Mustafa, Dunya.
- Nemahsis, Verbathim.
- The OBGMs, Sorry It's Over.
- Population II, Maintenant Jamais.
- Ribbon Skirt, Bite Down.
- Saya Gray, Saya.
- Yves Jarvis, All Cylinders.
On the list are a mix of past shortlisted artists and first-timers: Mustafa, Marie Davidson and the OBGMs have all previously made the short list, while the remaining artists are making their shortlist debuts.
There is also ample Quebec representation, as more than half the list — Yves Jarvis, Marie Davidson, Ribbon Skirt, Population II, Lou-Adriane Cassidy and Bibi Club — is either from or based in the province. The remaining artists — Mustafa, Nemahsis, Saya Gray and the OBGMs — are from the Greater Toronto Area.
CBC Music is also bringing back the radio series The Ten, which takes an in-depth look at each of this year's shortlisted albums leading up to Sept. 16, when the winner will be announced at the concert and award ceremony.
The Ten will be hosted by Odario Williams, with episodes broadcasting each Sunday on CBC Music and CBC Listen at 6 p.m. (6:30 NT) starting July 13 and running until Sept. 14.
Read on to find out more about the shortlisted albums below.
Name: Bibi Club
Album: Feu de garde
Hometown: Montreal
Release date: May 10, 2024
Polaris history: This is Bibi Club's first time on the Polaris short list. The duo's 2022 album, Le soleil et la mer, was longlisted in 2023.
About the album: Bibi Club, a duo whose name comes from the living-room discotheque they created for their bibis (loved ones) to dance, has returned with more dreamy pop songs that inspire deep introspection as much as they do movement. Feu de garde follows in the footprints of the duo's first album, Le solei et la mer, while expanding its sonic horizons. Singer and keyboardist Adèle Trottier-Rivard and guitarist Nicolas Basque bring shoegaze, indie rock and post-punk elements into their fold, creating a lived-in and nostalgic sound. When writing the album, Trottier-Rivard harkened back to her days as a Girl Guide and the lessons about community and connection to the natural world that she learned, and the song titles (La terre, L'îles aux bleuets) and lyrics evoke a reverence for nature.
The record is full of reflective scenes: being away from the city, in the deep woods on Les guides; a summer day spent picnicking under trees and people-watching on Parc de Beauvoir; watching a bonfire rise above the tree line, as the flames reveal hidden truths on Le feu. In an interview with Exclaim!, Trottier-Rivard shared how she discovered her love of singing around the bonfires of her youth as a Girl Guide: "These were precious moments for me, because I just discovered how much I loved singing with other people." Although she and Basque wrote, produced and recorded the album on their own, the communal aspect of this record cannot be ignored: these are songs about the intricate moments we share, and highlight the interconnectedness of our humanity.
Name: Lou-Adriane Cassidy
Album: Journal d'un Loup-Garou
Hometown: Quebec City
Release date: Jan. 24, 2025
Polaris history: This is Cassidy's first time on the Polaris short list, and Dis-moi dis-moi dis-moi, the opening track, is also nominated for the inaugural Polaris Song Prize.
About the album: Cassidy spent two years crafting Journal d'un Loup-Garou, a concept album about the werewolf (loup-garou) inside her whose diary unfurls track by track. It's a clever way in for an artist who says she has never been so lyrically honest in her work: "I feel like Journal d'un Loup-Garou is close to me because it talks about some things that happened in my personal life, and I feel like I've never assessed these subjects that precisely," Cassidy told Quebec AM host Julia Caron earlier this year. Through a powerfully melodic and cinematic universe, Cassidy is free to talk about a father who abandoned her as a teenager (Dis-moi dis-moi dis-moi), or her relationship with fellow Quebec City singer-songwriter and best friend Ariane Roy, to whom she's often compared (Ariane, featuring Roy). The vulnerable subject matter is buoyed by the communal spirit of creativity that went into the album: over more than 60 days in studio, Cassidy teamed up with musical and life partner Alexandre Martel, as well as Roy and a host of Quebec artists, to bring it to life.
"Merci à vous pour votre écoute," Cassidy says to close Celle-ci vient du coeur, the album's final track, after taking the time to list her co-conspirators. But we're the ones who should be thankful — and if you're thirsty for more, in May she dropped Totale Animal, a surprise album that serves as the perfect, free-flowing companion piece.
Name: Marie Davidson
Album: City of Clowns
Hometown: Montreal
Release date: Feb. 28, 2025
Polaris history: This is Davidson's second time on the short list; her fourth album, Working Class Woman, was nominated in 2019. The album before that, 2016's Adieux au dancefloor, was longlisted in 2017.
About the album: Marie Davidson almost quit music. In the midst of the pandemic, the Montreal artist found herself hitting pause, enrolling in a naturopathy program, and almost pursuing an entirely different career. But then, through DJing and collaborating with choreographer Dana Gingras, Davidson reignited her passion for making music. From there, she slowly started composing new tracks with her musical (and real-life) partner, Pierre Guerineau. A few years later, that turned into City of Clowns, Davidson's first solo album in almost eight years.
Its title references evil tech billionaires who prioritize capitalism over humanity, but Davidson also embodies the character of a clown in another way: representing the outsiders and misfits in society who aren't afraid to challenge the status quo. Of course, a signature trait of clowns is also a sense of humour, which Davidson wields playfully and ferociously, unabashedly exposing data-obsessed philosophies like on Demolition: "I don't want your cash now/ all I want is you/ I want your data/ data, baby!" Her observations are as sharp as ever, and delivered over industrial beats that slam our current dark reality into you with blunt force while also somehow lighting up the dance floor. But that's what dance music has always been: both exhilarating and inherently political.
Name: Mustafa
Album: Dunya
Hometown: Toronto
Release date: Sept. 27, 2024
Polaris history: This is Mustafa's second time on the Polaris short list. His debut EP, When Smoke Rises, was on the list in 2021.
About the album: Mustafa had big shoes to fill with Dunya, the followup to his critically acclaimed 2021 debut, When Smoke Rises. That first record not only cemented his status as an artist to watch — a New York Times profile, co-signs from Rosalia and Dua Lipa and a Juno win for songwriter of the year just scratch the surface of the outsized reaction to his tender songs — but also as a truly innovative new voice in the folk landscape. When Smoke Rises explored his experiences with death and grief growing up in the hood and Dunya, as he told CBC Music upon its release, "is kind of about the world that's still living around me."
The album is broader in scope, asking bigger questions about family, loss, belonging, global injustice and much more. The throughline that binds it all together is Mustafa's connection to his Muslim faith, and how it wanes and resurges in the face of all he has witnessed. Name of God, the album opener, is the entry point into this questioning: "Whose lord are you naming/ when you start to break things? … and when you left me waiting/ I thought / did you do it in the name of God?" he sings on the chorus. On I'll Go Anywhere, he's speaking directly to God, and by extension to his family, about the lengths he'll go to feel connected to his faith. On Gaza Is Calling, he tells the story of a childhood friendship fractured by the oppressive forces surrounding them, "the one in our new home [Toronto], the one that followed him from Gaza like a cold wind." Leaving Toronto finds him grappling with the contradictory emotions he feels for a city he's poured so much into, which has, in turn, taken so much from him: his close friends and family who have been killed and incarcerated. It's a cumbersome weight he bears, but it's clear Mustafa feels compelled to tell these specific folk stories to counteract the misrepresentation he's experienced all his life.
Name: Nemahsis
Album: Verbathim
Hometown: Milton, Ont.
Release date: Sept. 13, 2024
Polaris history: This is Nemahsis's debut album and first time on the Polaris short list.
About the album: Nemahsis wasn't sure if this album would ever be heard. The Palestinian Canadian artist completed Verbathim in 2023 and was poised to release it when she was unceremoniously dropped from her record label for being "too controversial" in October of that year. It took several months (and an attempt at signing to another label) before Nemahsis and her manager decided to release the album independently.
Verbathim arrived almost a year after Nemahsis felt the industry turn its back on her, and in the interim she found a new community online that galvanized her: "I don't have a label to run ads or push my content out or help me with the verbage [sic], so I would literally go on TikTok and say, 'What do you guys think about this?'" she told Dazed Middle East. Nemahsis has a diaristic vocal delivery, like a recorded stream of consciousness, and the observations and lamentations on Verbathim are set to sprawling, experimental pop with hints of new wave, funk and indie rock. Fine Print is an indictment of the expectation that she forfeit parts of her identity to play the game; Miss Construed and Stick of Gum call out the ways Western society willfully misunderstands her intentions; and Chemical Mark highlights the aftershocks of generational trauma. Throughout the record, Nemahsis is using pop sensibilities to spark deeper conversations — a tried and true formula that really works for her.
Name: The OBGMs
Album: Sorry, It's Over
Hometown: Toronto
Release date: Oct. 22, 2024
Polaris history: This is the second shortlist nomination for the OBGMs. The group's album The Ends was nominated in 2021.
About the album: The OBGMs are known for blending punk, rock and hip-hop for a sound that is both aggressive and melodic. Their third album, Sorry, It's Over, clocks in at only 26 minutes –– one of the shortest albums nominated this year –– but in that time, it accomplishes a lot. Balancing rage with rhythm on songs that are both confrontational and tender, frontman Densil McFarlane sings and screams lyrics that are deeply personal, covering things like heartbreak, depression, melancholy and, ultimately, acceptance. "I went to therapy and wanted to make something that feels like therapy for anyone who listens," McFarlane said in a statement at the time of the album's release. "We've always been a band about raw energy, but this time we wanted to share our soul."
To do this, the band also invited friends to help, including co-writers Stefan Babcock (Pup), Charlie Kerr (Hotel Mira) and Alex Edkins (Metz), plus guest artists Just John, Faiza and Sate, the latter contributing to one of the many album standouts, Changes. "My friends are different and I'm trying to stay the same/ the city's dead and I'm still running here in place/ this ship is sinking and I'm drowning in the waves," McFarlane sings on a track that explores the fear and struggle of change. But the album's closer, How Are You?, offers a glimmer of solace: "If I learn to love my demons/ will they be my angels?"
Name: Population II
Album: Maintenant Jamais
Hometown: Montreal
Release date: March 28, 2025
Polaris history: The band's 2023 album, Électrons libre du Québec, was longlisted in 2024.
About the album: "Everything came together from jamming and improvising," said bassist/keyboardist Sébastien Provençal of Maintenant Jamais, Population II's third album. "We would play and record for hours and hours, and then suddenly, here comes a song." The record is all about capturing the spirit of innovation. Tracks such as the experimental, Tame Impala-esque Mariano (Jamais je ne t'oublierai) feel like fluid jam sessions, fully tapping into the essence of improv. The album pulls from an encyclopedia of influences ranging from funk in the vein of Isaac Hayes to the wacky prog-rock of Matching Mole, and somehow the trio mixes it all together as the songs swing from soft and calm to frenetic and untethered. By melding blistering psychedelic guitar with drums that snarl, lead singer Pierre-Luc Gratton's wispy vocals are able to coast along each track hauntingly, like fog.
Maintenant Jamais translates to "now never" in English, a juxtaposition that captures the fluidity of each song's grooves as they swerve into each other. Produced by Dominic Vanchesteing, who has also worked with fellow shortlister Marie Davidson, Maintenant Jamais feels more accessible than Population II's past records, without sacrificing any excitement.
Name: Ribbon Skirt
Album: Bite Down
Hometown: Montreal
Release date: April 11, 2025
Polaris history: This is Ribbon Skirt's debut album and first Polaris nomination.
About the album: The Montreal post-punk duo of Anishinaabe singer Tashiina Buswa and multi-instrumentalist Billy Riley, formerly known as Love Language, released a debut album in April, and have amassed a dedicated following: a 7.7 review on Pitchfork, album-of-the-week status from Stereogum, a spotlight on Rolling Stone's list of "The Best of SXSW" and the label "irresistible Indigenous futurism" via Exclaim all helped turn heads to a project that deserves all the praise.
"I think it was five to seven years ago where I first started to really explore my Indigeneity and explore what that means to me…. I think I had a lot of stuff to expel, and a lot of stuff that has been brimming underneath my surface for many years, and I think that just all had to come out," Buswa recently told CBC Q host Tom Power. On songs Cellophane and Off Rez you can hear Buswa's reckoning: "I'm gonna break into a dance down the block/ I'm gonna be your brand new headache to solve/ drown you in paperwork, skip down the hall/ solve the Indian problem once and for all," she sings on the latter, a chugging guitar guiding each line to its bite. There's a raw edge to the album that curls around your insides, letting you live each verse as it's delivered, while exuding a '90s rock/grunge/riot grrrl spirit that is both skillful and contemporary. Bite Down is an unleashing that's as powerful as it is enjoyable.
Name: Saya Gray
Album: Saya
Hometown: Toronto
Release date: Feb. 21, 2025
Polaris history: This is Gray's first time on the short list.
About the album: Glitchy guitar chords, falsetto vocals and slick basslines permeate Saya Gray's Saya, a genre-fluid pop album born out of heartbreak. Concocted during road trips across Japan and California using an acoustic guitar that she kept strapped into the passenger seat of her car, Saya is how Gray pieced together her feelings of obsessiveness, yearning and more about an ex. On the project, she sings about the aftermath of her heartbreak, but also takes time and care to honour her Japanese heritage throughout: "I came to you flesh-toned/ origami, I fold," she sings on the fizzy opener …Thus Is Why (I don't spring 4 love), and instruments such as the koto — the national instrument of Japan and an instrument played by Gray's grandmother — elevate tracks such as H.B.W.
Gray's quirky sonic fingerprints are all over Saya, which she executive produced, with tracks containing fuzzy whoops and oos (Puddle (Of Me)) to the twinkling pluckings of harp (How Long Can You Keep Up a Lie?). Exploding with eclectic sounds, jumping from jazz to country to folk to pop and punk, it could easily feel cluttered, and yet Saya somehow feels cohesive, like a tightly bound scrapbook of tear-stained memories.
Name: Yves Jarvis
Album: All Cylinders
Hometown: Calgary (now based in Montreal)
Release date: Feb. 28, 2025
Polaris history: His 2019 album, The Same but by Different Means, was longlisted for the prize in 2019, and his 2020 album, Sundry Rock Song Stock, was longlisted in 2021.
About the album: All Cylinders churns and chugs with a swirl of bluegrass, psychedelic rock and funk, with multi-instrumentalist Yves Jarvis creating a smorgasbord of hazy, distorted sounds. Through it all, his crisp vocals cut through the beautiful warping with precision, slicing through basslines and twitchy guitar strumming (hear: The Knife In Me or I've Been Mean). Made entirely on the free audio editing platform Audacity, with Jarvis playing every instrument and producing all the songs, it's a glorious DIY exercise in staying within the box and humming against its edges: he told Clash Magazine that All Cylinders is "no pretense, no self-indulgence, music for the sake of music."
After a year of listening to a lot of Frank Sinatra, Jarvis used the project as a way to excavate choruses and drum patterns from his mind, chasing Sinatra's "clarity." By composing tracks focused around those basic elements, such as the opening song, With a Grain — his favourite on the record because "the first thing I laid down was that drum track and I think it contained the entire spirit of All Cylinders" — Jarvis has found the joy in simplicity on his most pared-back project to date.
