Albums by the Deadly Snakes, Broken Social Scene, Metric, the New Pornographers, Malajube and Wolf Parade are among the 10 nominees for the inaugural Polaris Music Prize. The $20,000 award is similar to the UK's Mercury Prize and will honour a full-length album based "solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales." The 10 nominated albums were selected from a pool of 165 releases by a group of more than 120 music journalists and broadcasters. To be eligible, the record has to be released between June 1st 2005 and May 31st of this year. Winners will be announced at a concert in Toronto on September 18th.

Click below for the full list of nominees.