If you read my last post, you may have seen me tease this one, but it’s time for the Mercury Prize 2018 Shortlist!
This year it was released at 11am on the 26th of July on BBC Radio 6 Music by the lovely Mary Anne Hobbs.
The Mercury Prize is a music prize, awarded every year, to the British or Irish act that releases the best album that year. It was started in 1992 by the British Phonographic Industry and the British Association of Record dealers as an alternative to the Brit Awards. It was originally sponsored by Mercury Prize, hence the name, though since 2016 it’s actually been sponsored by Hyundai!
The 2018 Awards Show will take place on Thursday 20 September at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith. The event will feature live performances from many of the shortlisted artists and the evening will culminate in the announcement of the overall winner of the 2018 Hyundai Mercury Prize for ‘Album of the Year’.
The Prize’s broadcast partner, BBC Music, will be providing live television and radio coverage of the event on BBC Four and BBC Radio 6 Music.
Past winners have included Primal Scream (1992), Portishead (1996), Dizzee Rascal (2003), Franz Ferdinand (2004) & The xx (2010) – just to name a few!
But anyway, without further ado here’s this year’s shortlist, in alphabetical order:
Arctic Monkeys – ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’
Everything Everything – ‘A Fever Dream’
Everything is Recorded – ‘Everything is Recorded’
Florence + The Machine – ‘High as Hope’
Jorja Smith – ‘Lost & Found’
King Krule – ‘The Ooz’
Lily Allen – ‘No Shame’
Nadine Shah – ‘Holiday Destination’
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds – ‘Who Built the Moon?’
Novelist – ‘Novelist Guy’
Sons of Kemet – ‘Your Queen is a Reptile’
Wolf Alice – ‘Visions of a Life
Here’s the official playlist provided by Spotify; featuring the Twelve shortlisted artists and albums.
Some things to note about this year’s nominees:
- Noel Gallagher’s nomination is seen as a bit left field, however, this new album is very different from his previous offerings as his new producer David Holmes pushed him outside his comfort zone.
- Nadine Shah’s album was inspired by the current refugee crisis, and the disconnection it has from the British public.
- Arctic Monkeys have already won once in 2006 with their debut album; Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
- Florence + the Machine’s High as Hope features much more minimalist, stripped-down productions compared to their previous albums, and explores themes of heartache, family, and finding comfort in loneliness
And some fun Mercury Prize trivia:
- PJ Harvey is the only artist to have won more than once, in both 2001 & 2011.
- She was also the first female solo artist to win the award.
- Alex Turner has received six nominations in total; five for the Arctic Monkeys, and once for The Last Shadow Puppets.
- Thom Yorke also has six, five for Radio Head and one for the Eraser, though he’s never won!
If you check out the link here, you can see the odds for the winner across different bookmakers, with Sons of Kemet, King Krule & Nadine Shah currently being the top three favourites.
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In other news, August is a very hectic month for me and my Masters, so I’m not going to be able to post much until my deadlines are over!
Check back next week as I’ll be posting about the upcoming Nowt Special art & music festival coming to the North East once again!
As always if you have any feedback or wanna get in touch, my contact details can be found here!
Jordan Scudder 