Damon Albarn and Royal Blood are celebrating nominations for the prestigious Mercury Prize after the 2014 shortlist was unveiled at a ceremony in London this evening.
As they’ve been doing all year, Royal Blood are flying the flag for rock music and have been quickly installed as 4/1 favourites along with Albarn, just ahead of Kate Tempest‘s ‘Everybody’s Down‘ which, with Bombay Bicycle Club‘s ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow‘, is rated a 6/1 shot.
Last year, James Blake took home the winner’s cheque thanks to his ‘Overgrown‘ LP, while 2012 saw Alt-J come out on top in one of the least surprising results in the award’s history. And, a little further back, in 2011 PJ Harvey became the first artist to win the prize on two separate occasions after her brilliant ‘Let England Shake‘ album followed up the 2001 success of ‘Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea‘.
2014 Mercury Prize shortlist:
Anna Calvi – ‘One Breath’
Bombay Bicycle Club – ‘So Long, See You Tomorrow’
Damon Albarn – ‘Everyday Robots’
East India Youth – ‘Total Strife Forever’
FKA Twigs – ‘LP1’
GoGo Penguin – ‘v2.0’
Jungle – ‘Jungle’
Kate Tempest – ‘Everybody Down’
Nick Mulvey – ‘First Mind’
Polar Bear – ‘In Each And Every One’
Royal Blood – ‘Royal Blood’
Young Fathers – ‘Dead’