The Shortlist For The UK’s Mercury Music Prize Is Announced
The shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize, which will honor the album that is determined to be the best in the UK or Ireland over the last 12 months, was announced yesterday. The following artists and albums are under consideration:
Adele = 19
British Sea Power = Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial = Untrue
Elbow = The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle = Shine
Laura Marling = Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon = Stainless Style
Portico Quartet = Knee-Deep In The North Sea
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset = The Bairns
Radiohead = In Rainbows
The Last Shadow Puppets = Age of the Understatement
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss = Raising Sand
I think that the judges are going to have to wrestle with their decision, because there are quite a few quality albums on the shortlist.
Radiohead probably should win, but I don’t think that they will due to the huge publicity that the In Rainbows album generated upon its release because of the ability for fans to download it at any price they wanted. Awarding the prize to Radiohead seems a bit too obvious. I would like to see Adele win since I really enjoyed her 19 album and the two live shows of hers that I had the opportunity to see in New York City this year. I don’t believe that she will be the winner, however. I think that the prize is going to go to The Last Shadow Puppets, the side project of the Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner and Miles Kane of The Rascals.
Last year’s Mercury Music Prize was won by Klaxons for their stellar Myths of the Near Future album.
There is more information about the Mercury Music Prize shortlist in an article from BBC News at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7519452.stm.
The BBC’s Mercury Music Prize microsite at http://www.bbc.co.uk/musicevents/mercuryprize2008/ features video of the announcement of the shortlist for the prize.
The official site for the Mercury Music Prize, which is sponsored by Nationwide, is at http://www.nationwidemercurys.com/.
July 23, 2008 at 6:05 pm
You’re trading the prize. It’s not the prize though. That’s how you identify the Mercury Music Prize.