Polaris Music Prize 2015 long list revealed

Toronto-based indie pop band Alvvays, Canadian singer/songwriter and activist Buffy Sainte-Marie and Montreal-based jazz pianist Elizabeth Shepherd are just a few of the acts in the running for the 2015 Polaris Prize.

The long list of nominees for the prestigious award honouring the year's best Canadian album was revealed Tuesday in Halifax.

The nominees, selected solely on artistic merit, include:

• Absolutely Free – Absolutely Free
• The Acorn – Vieux Loup
• Lydia Ainsworth – Right From Real
• Alvvays – Alvvays​
• Arkells – High Noon
• Rich Aucoin – Ephemeral
• BADBADNOTGOOD & Ghostface Killah – Sour Soul
• Bahamas – Bahamas Is Afie
• The Barr Brothers – Sleeping Operator
• Braids – Deep In The Iris
• Steph Cameron – Sad-Eyed Lonesome Lady
• Caribou – Our Love
• Jazz Cartier – Marauding In Paradise
• Jennifer Castle – Pink City
• Cold Specks – Neuroplasticity
• Louis-Jean Cormier – Les grandes artères
• Death From Above 1979 – The Physical World
• Drake – If You're Reading This It's Too Late
• Frazey Ford – Indian Ocean
• Tobias Jesso Jr. – Goon
• B.A. Johnston – Shit Sucks
• Pierre Kwenders – Le dernier empereur Bantou
• Lee Harvey Osmond – Beautiful Scars
• Jean Leloup – À Paradis City
• METZ – II
• Milk & Bone – Little Mourning
• Tre Mission – Stigmata
• The New Pornographers – Brill Bruisers
• Joel Plaskett – The Park Avenue Sobriety Test
• Buffy Sainte-Marie – Power In The Blood
• Elizabeth Shepherd – The Signal
• Siskiyou – Nervous
• Colin Stetson and Sarah Neufeld – Never were the way she was
• Various Artists – Native North America (Vol. 1): Aboriginal Folk, Rock and Country, 1966-1985
• Viet Cong – Viet Cong
• Patrick Watson – Love Songs For Robots
• The Weather Station – Loyalty
• White Lung – Deep Fantasy
• Whitehorse – Leave No Bridge Unburned
• Young Guv – Ripe 4 Luv

The Polaris winner is determined by an eleven-member jury of Canadian music journalists, broadcasters and bloggers.

Albums must have been released between ​June 1, 2014 to May 31, 2015 to be considered.

This year's winner will take home a new larger cash prize of $50,000 up from previous year's $30,000.

Each of the nine other short listed artists will receive $3,000. 

• Polaris Music Prize 2014: Tanya Tagaq wins $30K as jury's pick

Inuk throat singer Tanya Tagaq won the most recent Polaris, while other winners include Feist, Arcade Fire and Caribou.

The short list will be unveiled on July 16, with the awards handed out at a gala  in Toronto on Sept. 21.