The nominees for the Mercury Music Prize were announced in London this afternoon and like every year, the list is likely to divide opinion.
Jessie Ware’s stunning homage to the 80s Quiet Storm sounds of Sade, ‘Devotion,’ the experimental art-rock of Django Django’s self-titled debut and Alt J’s folktronica-led ‘An Awesome Wave’ were always expected to feature.
Whilst The Maccabees’ impressive third effort, ‘Given To The Wild,’ Plan B’s generation defining, ‘iLL Manors,’ and Lianne La Havas’ ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?’ were also previously tipped by the bookies.
But although there aren’t any major shocks on the list, there are a couple of records which may have raised a few eyebrows when called out. Particularly Michael Kiwanuka’s rather dull ‘Home Again,’ which hasn’t exactly set the world alight despite the London singer winning the BBC Sound of 2012 poll earlier this year.
Elsewhere, there are nods for Richard Hawley’s ‘Standing At The Sky’s Edge,’ Field Music’s ‘Plum’ and Ben Howard’s ‘Every Kingdom.’ Whilst the token jazz and folk nominations go to Roller Trio’s eponymous debut and Sam Lee’s ‘Ground Of Its Own.’
Not exactly the most inspiring of lists then, with perhaps a few too many acoustic singer-songwriters in there. But it will still be interesting to see whether the panel will go for the mainstream favourites, a la Arctic Monkeys, or the leftfield WTF choice, a la Speech Debelle, when the result is announced on November 1.
