2008 Nationwide Mercury Prize

The shortlist was announced today:

- Adele - '19'
- British Sea Power - 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
- Burial - 'Untrue'
- Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
- Estelle - 'Shine'
- The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of The Understatement'
- Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
- Neon Neon - 'Stainless Style'
- Portico Quartet - 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea'
- Robert Plant And Alison Krauss – 'Raising Sand'
- Radiohead - 'In Rainbows'
- Rachel Unthank And The Winterset – 'The Bairns'

Thats a nice ecletic short-list I guess, Alex Turner has made it a Mercury Prize hat-trick after being nominated for the past 2 years (Arctic Monkeys), and with The Last Shadow Puppets this time. Radiohead have a strong chance of winning, its an excellent album and what they did with the 'pay-what-you-like' strategy will win them extra brownie points. I don't, however, understand why Foals aren't in there, they've brought new genres into a mainstream industry and what they're doing at the moment is wonderful.

xxo