Shortlist announced for the 2015 Mercury Prize

Last year’s winners Young Fathers show off their prize

Twelve artists feature on the shortlist for the 2015 Mercury Prize, but not Everything Everything. So who made the cut?

It’s one of the most well-regarded awards in the music business, with past winners including The xx, James Blake, Primal Scream, Portishead, and two-time winner PJ Harvey – the only artist to hold this honour. Today saw the announcement of the 12 artists shortlisted for the 2015 Mercury Prize, and so began the speculating over who will take home the honour.

Early predictions had placed Everything Everything at the top of the list. However, in what was something of a shock, the quartet failed to make the cut. There are, though, some notable artists among the 12. Songwriting Magazine’s Summer 2015 cover stars Wolf Alice saw their album My Love Is Cool make the list, as did Slaves for Are You Satisfied? Elsewhere, Florence + the Machine’s How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful – which topped the charts in a whopping eight countries – becomes one of the early front-runners for the gong, while Ghostpoet’s excellent Shedding Skin will take some beating.

Having ‘Introduced’ you to C Duncan and Eska, we’re delighted to see their albums Architect and Eska gaining the panel’s approval and we believe that SOAK’s Before We Forgot How To Dream and Gaz Coombes’ Matador are extremely worthy entrants. The exceptionally high standard of 2015’s shortlist is maintained by Aphex Twin (Syro), Benjamin Clementine (At Least For Now) Jamie xx (In Colour) and Róisín Murphy (Hairless Toys.)

You can listen to each of the twelve artists on our exclusive 2015 Mercury Prize playlist:

2014’s Mercury Prize was taken by Scottish hip-hop trio Young Fathers, with their debut album Dead one of the least-expected winners of recent years. We at Songwriting are picking Wolf Alice as our tips to come out on top this time round. However, with one of the early favourites for 2015 not even making the cut for this year’s Mercury Prize, the race is clearly wide open.

The winner of the 2015 Mercury Prize will be announced on 20 November 2015. You can see the full shortlist below:

Aphex Twin – Syro
Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
Róisín 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 How To Dream
Gaz Coombes – Matador
Slaves – Are You Satisfied?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.