Florence & The Machine and Jamie xx are just two of the acts to have landed nominations for the 2015 Mercury Prize, whose shortlist was confirmed at a maddeningly pedestrian rate this morning (October 16th).
‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’ and ‘In Colour‘ had odds of 20/1 and 7/1 respectively yesterday with Ladbrokes, and while some of the other bookies’ picks such as The Maccabees, Everything Everything and Sleaford Mods didn’t make the cut, Florence Welch will now remain as one of the front-runners even if her commercial success may put judges off during the final reckoning. By contrast, Jamie xx may well emerge as the strong favourite to win.
Elsewhere, Gaz Coombes certainly jumps as one of our favourite albums of the year so far, as do Slaves and C Duncan with ‘Architect‘.
“Fascinating is a word that sounds, in this twenty first century, a lot more affected and prissy than it used to, however it’s an adjective which sits comfortably with ‘Architect‘s timeless, charming aesthetic and in Christopher Duncan we appear to have unearthed a writer/composer of rare talent,” our ‘Architect’ review reads.
2015 Mercury Prize shortlist:
Aphex Twin – ‘Syro’
Benjamin Clementine – ‘At Least For Now’
C Duncan – ‘Architect’
Eska – ‘Eska’
Florence & The Machine – ‘How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful’
Gaz Coombes – ‘Matador’
Ghostpoet – ‘Shedding Skin’
Jamie xx – ‘In Colour’
Róisín Murphy – ‘Hairless Toys’
Slaves – ‘Are You Satisfied’
Soak – ‘Before We Forgot How To Dream’
Wolf Alice – ‘My Love Is Cool’