Karkwa, photographed by Marie-Claude Hamel.

Last night was the gala for the fifth annual Polaris Prize, Canada’s “increasingly distinguished” music award that shuns commercial success in favour artistic merit.

This year’s winner is — surprise! — Karkwa, a band that few predicted in advance. But really, no one should be surprised. The Polaris Grand Jury likes to pull their choices out of left field and of the four previous awards given, three were handed to Ontarians, so someone else was due. Of course, none of this is an attempt to explain away the merit of Karkwa or Les Chemin de Verre, the album that won them the prize.

In this edition of Tuesday Tracks we’re going to take another look at Karkwa and see why they’re so deserving of the prize. Then we’re going to look at two other short listers that missed the Tuesday Tracks spotlight over the course of the past few months, (although they both certainly had the attention of the rest of the music press).

First! your 2010 Polaris Prize winners, the underdogs—Karkwa. Formed in 1998, Karkwa are fairly well known in Quebec, but less so in Anglo Canada. Their music is dense and dramatic, I’d like to speak on themes, but frankly I’m one of those unilingual heathens. It’s beautiful, but don’t take my word for it. Here’s “Marie Tu Pleures” off their Polaris winning album.

Next up is Tegan and Sara, the identical twin duo who have released several award worthy albums over the course of the past ten years. Their latest – Sainthood – might not have won the big prize last night, but they did take everyone by surprise by being perhaps the funniest nominees, joking about the potential length of their acceptance speech. They performed “Alligator” (sorry, it can’t be embedded, but you can watch it on YouTube) with the help of Owen Pallett.

Speaking of Owen Pallett — previous winner of the award under the moniker Final Fantasy, and again a nominee in his own right — somehow he too was overlooked by Tuesday Tracks leading up to the big night. In reality, already having a Polaris Prize, his chances of winning were pretty much zilch, but his new album, Heartland, his first under his own name, is a lush, delicate piece of music, complicated yet accessibly and rewarding. Possibly his finest, here’s “Lewis Takes Off His Shirt.”

This week’s installment

Most weeks it’s pretty easy—there’s so much to listen to, and doing a regular feature like Tuesday Tracks is the perfect excuse to inhale it all. It gives the listening process some purpose and makes it feel a little less self indulgent; I’m working man, after all! But sometimes Tuesday creeps up and it just so happens the stuff streaming through the iPod isn’t particularly new or, more importantly, isn’t particularly Canadian. This leaves me cursing myself over leaving things to the last minute and making promises to myself to never let it happen again. But the truth is, often these turn into the best nights, a Monday night locked inside, clicking around the web in search of inspiration. It’s surprising how easily it can come sometimes. Sometimes it feels a little like the songs find you. So this week I present a collection of songs that have nothing in common beyond the long shot chance that I stumbled on them and really, really liked them.

This weeks first track comes from Rae Spoon, a singer songwriter from Calgary. Spoon’s output up to this point is on the country/folk side of things, but with “Love is a Hunter”, the title track from Spoon’s upcoming album, things get a little more dramatic. The video is a herky-jerky stop motion hallucination speckled with body parts, cat heads and angelfish. The song sets itself up with a restrained build that feels like you’re listening in slow motion while the arrangement layers itself, getting bigger and bigger before it breaks for quiet again. I’ve listened to this song probably 12 times already and I think I still want to give it another few goes before I move on.

Next up is one of two Québécois shortlisters for the Polaris Prize: Karkwa (the other is Radio Radio). The song, “Oublie Pas”, has a slow, dreamy feeling to it; not being a fluent French speaker, I can’t comment on themes here, except that the title means “Don’t Forget.” I kind of like it that way sometimes; it’s lovely to be able to listen to music written in a language you don’t speak, since it focuses you on the sounds—the musicality—of the language, instead of getting distracted by the lyrics’ meaning.

Finally, the last selection in this weeks edition is The Beauties. Somewhat of a live institution, the Beauties has garnered quite a following with their impossibly popular Sunday night residency at the Dakota Tavern in Toronto. Finally, they’ve put some of that charisma down on tape with their debut album. Check out “Fashion Blues” to find out what all the fuss is about: