Music Blog

The prestigious Mercury Prize annually celebrates the best of music in the UK and Ireland, each fall awarding the title of 'Album of the Year' to an artist. The shortlist for this year was just announced, compiled of twelve albums that will be judged and deliberated on, with the announcement of the winner falling on September 7th. The winners have recently included Elbow, the Klaxons, and the Arctic Monkeys, as well as The xx, who currently hold the title from 2010. The current artists/albums in the running are:

Adele - 21
Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Everything Everything - Man Alive
Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau
James Blake - James Blake
Katy B - On A Mission
King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
Metronomy - The English Riviera
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy

Out of the contenders there is a relatively mixed bag--as for the top dogs, Adele has been a sensation for the past few years, and has already recieved one nomination in 2008 for her album 19; Mercury favorite PJ Harvey has been nominated four times for the award and was awarded the honors once for Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea in 2001, and Elbow has been nominated several times in previous years, as well as bringing home the title in 2008 for The Seldom Seen Kid.

Several artists who are recieving much attention will be worth watching: Anna Calvi and the uber-popular James Blake, for example. Artists such as Katy B and Tinie Tempah are new on our radar, so it truly is a varied turn-out this year...not to mention the Mercury Prize is known to be awarded to underdog artists, so it will be interesting to see how it all unfolds. Don't write off a suprise come September.