I can feel the fury—there’s blood boiling and hair being pulled. Angry bloggers everywhere are grinding their teeth as they feverously mash their keyboards in indignation at…wait…they gave the prize to Caribou?…Oh, I guess that’s not so bad.

The Polaris Prize is a curious beast. I don’t know anyone who champions its relevance or even cares who wins, but I’ll be damned if everyone doesn’t like to argue about the worthiness of the nominees. It reminds me of every time a magazine would publish its list of the best albums of all time—no one ever agrees and feathers are ruffled, but it gets people talking and that’s clearly the entire point.

When it was announced last night that Caribou took this year’s prize home (and the $20,000 smackers that goes with it) for his album, Andorra, my first reaction was along the lines of “Well,…that makes sense.“ which was immediately followed by disappointment—not because I don’t like Caribou—but because it’s a largely inoffensive choice. I was half hoping to see Stars or The Weakerthans—even Basia Bulat—take the win, just so I could feel the blogosphere rumble in self-righteous frenzy.

Sure, I was rooting for Plants & Animals and I’m sure others out there wanted to see Shad or Black Mountain win, but at the end of the day I can’t really fault them for choosing a well-crafted album from a worthy artist. I guess us vultures will just have to get off our soapboxes for a day…There’s always next year.

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Caribou - Melody Day

Hear more at Caribou’s Myspace page.