Previous Story
Florence and the Machine, Aphex Twin, Jamie xx Lead Mercury Prize Shortlist
Posted On Oct 19 2015
Comment: Off
Florence and the Machine’s How Big How Blue How Beautiful, Aphex Twin’s comeback LP Syro and Jamie xx’s In Colour are among the dozen albums shortlisted for this year’s prestigious Mercury Prize, which honors the best album recorded by a U.K. artist. The Mercury Prize ceremony will take place November 20th in London.
Other nominees on the shortlist include Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes’ solo LP Matador, Slaves’ Are You Satisfied, Zimbabwe-born singer Eska’s self-titled album, Ghostpoet’s Shedding Skin, Irish singer-songwriter Soak’s Before We Forgot How to Dream and garage rockers Wolf Alice’s My Love Is Cool. The Mercury Prize was established in 1992; recent winners include James Blake’s Overgrown, Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave and P.J. Harvey’s Let England Shake.
Florence + The Machine’s third album, How Big, How Blue, How lovely, was the sixth album announced.
Irish singer-songwriter and former Moloko star Roisin Murphy released her long-awaited third album back in May. This is the second time Florence has been nominated for a Mercury Prize – their debut album Lungs received a nomination in 2009.
The prize will be handed out during a ceremony in London on 20 November (15).
Last year’s Mercury Prize saw the likes of Royal Blood, FKA twigs and Young Fathers battle it out for the crown, with Young Fathers ending up victorious.
Only two bands make the shortlist – Slaves and Wolf Alice, who represent two opposing approaches to rock. “It was extremely stressful to win, the tension in the room – and I got to hide behind the others when they did the speech”.
British singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Eska spent five years writing and recording her debut album of folk-soul-jazz. “It’s just insane – I did not see that coming!”
Matador is the second solo album from Coombes, recorded at his home studio and Courtyard Studios in Oxfordshire.
He said: “It’s insane”. “I’m sure I’ll go out later on”. We didn’t think we’d be in the Mercury Awards.it’s what any musicians want to accomplish with their music, because it’s about nothing else but that. The album secured a top 10 chart position in the United Kingdom when it was released in September 2014, thirteen years after Aphex Twin’s first album was recorded.
However, according to The Independent, the albums left off the shortlist are even more surprising: Blur’s reunion album The Magic Whip did not make the Mercury cut, nor did Laura Marling’s Short Movie, which ends a streak of three straight Mercury-nominated albums for the singer.
Simon Frith, chair of judges, added: “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.
