Lauren Laverne just announced the shortlist for the Mercury Music Prize over the course of her show on BBC 6 Music for 2015 and the list is:
Aphex Twin – Syro
Wolf Alice – Bros
Roisin Murphy – Hairless Toys
C Duncan – Architect
ESKA – Eska
Florence & The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Ghostpoet – Shedding Skin
Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now
Jamie xx – In Colour
Soak – Before We Forgot To Dream
Gaz Coombes – Matador
Slaves – Are You Satisfied?
Not a bad list, leaning a bit too heavily on established names perhaps. Would have hoped for Jonnie Common, All We Are, Lianne La Havas and Gwenno but you have to pay to enter so who knows if any of them did.
Here’s a Spotify playlist of all of the nominees:
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005 . He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Cara Magazine, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, founder of Lumo Club, club promoter, event curator and producer of gigs, listening parties & events in Dublin.
