Mercury Nominations Announced

The nominations for the Mercury Prize Album Of The year have been announced, including LPs from Jamie xx (pictured), Ghostpoet, Slaves and Aphex Twin.

The shortlist was chosen from an entry of over 290 albums and announced by presenter and broadcaster Lauren Laverne during her show on BBC Radio 6Music a couple of days ago. The Awards Show will be held in the Radio Theatre at Broadcasting House in London on 20th November and will also be hosted by Laverne.

Chair of Judges Simon Frith said: “This year’s Mercury Prize shortlist includes seven debut albums and it celebrates artists from every stage of their careers. These musicians come from a fascinating variety of musical places, cultures and histories. What they have in common is the ambition and the craft, the ideas and the imagination to make great music!”

Of course, Gen readers may decide for themselves if such descriptions match the shortlist, which also includes albums from Florence and the Machine, Wolf Alice and Gaz Coombes alongside Benjamin Clementine, C Duncan, Eska, Róisín Murphy and SOAK. What, no Sleaford Mods, we hear you cry? The list is a little all over the shop and it is odd nominating Aphex Twin for 2014’s ‘Syro’, arguably his most conventional album yet, at least by his own standards- it simply sounds like him.

The event will be broadcast live on BBC Four and BBC Radio 6 Music, with a series of broadcasts scheduled across the BBC’s radio and digital platforms in the build-up. This will include the 2015 Mercury Prize Albums of the Year being showcased through a series of studio sessions featuring this year’s shortlisted artists.

As highlighted by Music Business Worldwide, over 75% of the 12 nominated albums were released on independent labels.

Find out more and see the complete shortlist here.