More many serious music fans, the Barclaycard Mercury Prize is the be-all, end-all, Holy Grail of music awards. First handed out to Primal Scream's Screamadelica in 1992, the Mercury Prize is given each year to the most outstanding album by a UK or Irish band or artist. Previous winners have included a few records you might have heard of, including Portishead's Dummy, Pulp's Different Class, Badly Drawn Boy's The Hour of Bewilderbeast, Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid, The xx's debut album and, most recently, PJ Harvey's Let England Shake.
As chosen by an esteemed panel of British music industry types, here's the 2012 shortlist, as announced earlier today:
Jessie Ware – Devotion
Django Django – Django Django
The Maccabees – Given To The Wild
Roller Trio – Roller Trio
Richard Hawley – Standing At The Sky's Edge
Field Music – Plumb
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
Plan B – Ill Manners
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough
Sam Lee – Ground Of Its Own
I know what you're thinking… "Who?" Even more so than last year, the 2012 shortlist is conspicuously bare in the high profile artists department (Coldplay, Florence + The Machine, Kate Bush, etc.). Still, there's plenty of great music on the ballot this year. Plan B seems to be the obvious favorite at the moment, though I wouldn't count out Richard Hawley, whose pretty outstanding Coles Corner was (I think) unfairly beaten out by the Arctic Monkeys back in 2006. Pretty down with Michael Kiwanuka and Django Django as well, though—more than a little intrigued to see who the Barclaycard folks decide to go with on November 1.
What do you guys think of this year's Mercury Prize nominees? Any clear favorites? Predictions? Let us know in the comments section below.
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[Pitchfork]
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