TORONTO - For Ron Sexsmith, making the Polaris Music Prize short list is a little like finally receiving a lunchtime invitation to the cool kids' table.

The pathologically self-deprecating singer/songwriter was immensely proud of the record that earned the distinction, "Long Player Late Bloomer." But the Polaris has a reputation, if not a mandate, for awarding the musical vanguard, and Sexsmith -- who has a reputation for churning out immaculately crafted pop -- doesn't necessarily see how he fits.

And while the 47-year-old has collaborated with the likes of certified-cool indie songstress Leslie Feist, he's never felt particularly hip.

"My impression was that (the Polaris) was mostly for people who were doing more alternative things, that were cutting edge --whatever I wasn't doing," he said in a recent telephone interview from his home.

"I've always been a pretty straight-ahead pop musician, so I was just really, really surprised.... I just always feel so square, I guess is the word."

And will the Polaris back-pat change that?

"I'll be in the cool kids' room, anyway," he cracks wryly.

Indeed, Sexsmith aside, this year's crop of shortlisters is a riper bunch than we've seen in recent years, with eight Polaris newbies (last year's cluster had only four) competing for the $30,000 prize, which will be awarded Sept. 19.

Among them? Toronto's moody, hype-hoarding R&B act the Weeknd, Calgary purveyors of swirling psychedelia Braids and Montreal saxophonist Colin Stetson, whose rewardingly dense avant-garde compositions probably position him farthest outside the mainstream out of this year's Polaris hopefuls.

"It's a really big honour to be nominated for it," said Katie Stelmanis, the classically trained vocalist for Toronto's shortlisted frozen-electro trio Austra, who pointed out that some newly nominated artists have been kicking around the Canadian music scene for a while.

"I did put out a solo record three years ago, so I think that my music was on the radar. It didn't come out of nowhere like for example some of the other bands."

Of course, Sexsmith is an even more seasoned Polaris rookie. He's actually the prize's most experienced nominee ever, with roughly a dozen albums in his rear-view.

And he's tickled that the particular record that earned this nomination was his most pop effort yet, buffed to a radio-ready sheen by hit-making producer Bob Rock.

"That's why I think it's cool they put me in this thing -- it's almost subversive in a way," he said. "I couldn't really have done anything further away from indie or alternative, unless I worked with David Foster or something."

"There is this really strong independent, alternative scene that I don't really come from, so I feel like a bit of an alien at the Polaris (gala). I'm sort of the one coming from the seemingly straighter part of the music thing, but feeling like the weirdest guy."

Yet using such logic to size up Sexsmith's odds at winning the prize might be a mistake.

Of course, nine of the Polaris hopefuls could be fairly cast as plucky underdogs compared to Montreal's Arcade Fire, whose monolithic third album "The Suburbs" has already claimed album-of-the-year honours at the Grammys, Junos and Brit Awards.

But this is the Polaris, where the rotating grand jury of 10 who decide the award's outcome have in the past seemed to revel in defying expectations, even to the point of frustrating the award's forward-thinking followers -- consider 2007, when Patrick Watson's "Close to Paradise" surprisingly triumphed over records from Feist and Arcade Fire that had enjoyed considerably more critical and commercial success.

"Clearly Arcade Fire, they made a phenomenal record, but I don't know what the politics of the award are," Stelmanis said, sipping a pint on the patio of a Toronto restaurant.

"Obviously they're kind of the most successful, well-known band, and I feel like in the past, the Polaris Prize has not really given awards to people like that. They always kind of give it to the underdogs.

"It could go either way. Arcade Fire is kind of the obvious choice, so are they going to give it to them or are they going to give it to the underdogs? The thing about it is, you never know, every year it's been a little bit of a surprise."

In other words, attempting to handicap the whims of the Polaris jury appears to be a fool's errand.

So, despite his typical protestations, Sexsmith would seem to have as good a shot as anyone. But he isn't sweating it either way.

"When I've been nominated for things in the past ... when they're reading the names out, I'm always hoping it's going to be somebody else," he says.

"Partly because the most nerve-wracking thing is actually winning sometimes, when you have to go through the crowd and say something.... So I'm not like foaming at the mouth (to win). I'm just really honoured to be nominated and happy to be there and feel really proud to be there."

"It's kind of cool that they put someone like me in there.... I just felt so kind of -- not out of place, but it just seems so out of left field."