More about: Mercury Music Prize

This week (23 July) the Hyundai Mercury Prize will announce their 12 shortlisted acts who will be in the running to win the 2020 award. 

Celebrating the entire body of work, as opposed to just a track, these days the Mercury Prize helps to keep ‘the album’ as a format relevant in the digital age of streaming. Picked by an independent panel of esteemed judges deemed to be music experts within the industry, the panel select albums from British and Irish artists released in the last year. 

This year new additions to the judging panel include three-time shortlisted artist Anna Calvi, as well as broadcaster and DJ Gemma Cairney. Determined to not let Covid-19 get in the way of the inaugural accolade, the nominees will be announced on Lauren Laverne's 6 Music show between 10.30am and 11.30am.

As we look forward to the announcement, Shannon Cotton, Jessie Atkinson and Matty Pywell have pulled together some suitable predictions for who they think should be given a nod on Thursday. 

FKA twigs - MAGDALENE

The production on MAGDALENE is near perfect. Full of intricacies and an enthralling elegance. FKA twigs is an artist who takes great care in her art both visually and on record. This is pop music tested to its very limits, it's an album that feels as though it stands in its own unique aura. Eerily cinematic and rousingly beautiful, FKA twigs’ art already feels timeless and unbound in its own world. (MP) 

Kano - Hoodies All Summer

Dark clouds tempered with bright spots of sunlight cluster over Kano's latest release Hoodies All Summer. Poignant to a fault, it pulses with Black pain and Black joy. On the subjects of knife crime and racial oppression, Kano is as beguiling as in expressions of defiant delight. Through the storm, Kano paints chinks of beautiful light: hope among the pain. It's a dichotomy that holds its own throughout forty thoroughly enjoyable, incredibly eloquent minutes. (JA) Read our full album review here.

Laura Marling - Song For Our Daughter

One of very few artists to pull the release of their album forward instead of pushing it back to accommodate the pandemic, folk darling Laura Marling made one of the smartest decisions of 2020. Her stirring acoustic Song For Our Daughter - addressed to a non-existent child - presents a prolific artist at the height of her powers. Confessional, searing and unmistakably contemporary despite beautiful touches of the vintage, Marling's seventh full-length places her in the canon of the world's greatest singer-songwriters. (JA) Read our full album review here.

Michael Kiwanuka - KIWANUKA

There was a time in his career where Michael Kiwanuka was thinking of giving it all up. If that was so we would have been robbed of some truly outstanding music. The natural soul-stirrer found himself in the making of KIWANUKA tweaking his sound and tinging it in drifts of psychedelia. Kiwanuka is an exemplary guitarist and here he flexes his strongest hooks and licks. The pride for his Ugandan heritage is clear throughout and makes time to mix the personal with the political, discussing racism and police brutality. (MP) Read our full album review here.

Sorry - 925

It’s hard to not get excited when thinking about the debut album from Sorry, 925. It has quickly propped them up as one of the UK’s best guitar bands. The album portrays a range of characters who seem to crawl out of the seedier shadows of Britain's backstreets. The dynamic between vocalists Asha and Louis is perhaps their biggest strength, as they chastise, praise and compliment each other across the entire album. (MP) Read our full album review here.

Georgia - Seeking Thrills

A drummer turned dance prodigy, Georgia's Seeking Thrills is not her first rodeo. An eponymous debut came five years ago, but with her sophomore effort, the winner of last year's AIM One To Watch makes a big, big statement. Supple and sugary, Seeking Thrills takes us through hedonistic dancefloor, dark electronica and intoxicated dreamscapes. From start to finish, Georgia crafts an emotive, addictive proposition for the future of the club. This is a marvellous ode to losing yourself in dance; a piece that will go down in popular and critical history. (JA) Read our full album review here.

Melt Yourself Down - 100% Yes

A third outing for an eclectic duo, 100% Yes criss-crosses a buffet of influences, sticking its fingers in a smorgasbord of sounds and cross-contaminating the lot. Reader, it works. A whiplash trip through dance rock, jazz, no wave, psych and global influences, it's quite the statement. On top of that, Melt Yourself Down manage to address socio-political issues, easily balancing music and lyrics no matter how deep and complicated each of them get. An album ripe for award nomination. (JA) Read our full album review here.

Nadine Shah - Kitchen Sink

If 2016’s Holiday Destination was a breakout moment for Nadine Shah then her latest record Kitchen Sink has surely placed her as one of the UK’s best political songwriters. This time tackling casual and inherent sexism, patriarchal ideals and societal expectations placed upon women. She does this with a blunt candour but with the odd beastiality joke thrown in there too for good measure, it’s a lyrical triumph. (MP) Read our full album review here.

Ghostpoet - I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep

Here he is: the two-time Mercury nominee. Ghostpoet has a fantastic shot at a third nod - and perhaps his first win - with the dark and incisive I Grow Tired But Dare Not Fall Asleep. Few alternative artists can confront life's banal and behemoth with the same insightful way as Obaro Ejimiwe. On his fifth studio album, this artist delves into the seedy, frightening underbelly to modern life, confronting social media, institutional racism, Brexit and more personal and political issues with a deft hand and a newfound talent for production. (JA) Read our full album review here.

The Big Moon - Walking Like We Do

The Big Moon are nothing short of a delight. Their second album Walking Like We Do came through with more maturity than their debut, discussing maturity, the societal standards that weigh upon on us and finding calmness within a world that seems to specialise in chaos. That is not to say The Big Moon aren’t fun anymore, in fact quite the opposite they’ve still got hooks aplenty. Walking Like We Do feels like a reassuring hand on the shoulder and illuminates the best parts of being alive. (MP) See our live gallery of The Big Moon from earlier this year, here. 

Sam Fender - Hypersonic Missiles

A working class hero. The Bruce Springsteen for a new generation. The Tyneside troubadour. Critics have always been quick to reference and label Sam Fender’s work. Strip this all away though and what you will witness is a solid body of work in the singer-songwriter’s debut record Hypersonic Missiles. Poignant and deft songwriting marries intricate and enticing guitar playing, which is all sanctified by that voice. Covering topics ranging from male mental health to politics, Fender asks the questions many of us should be thinking about, encouraging a conversation and making his striking debut a strong contender for a Mercury nod. (SC) Read our latest interview with Sam Fender here. 

The Murder Capital - When I Have Fears

An atmospheric opus of great magnitude, The Murder Capital’s debut record When I Have Fears deals out just as much comfort and reassurance as it does intensity and fear. Focussing greatly on a series of dichotomies; life and death, light and dark, everything and nothing, the Irish quintet craft the perfect juxtaposition between appearing feral whilst dealing with the fragility of mortality - which lingers long after the final notes on record. (SC) Read our live review of The Murder Capital here.

Check back here on Thursday morning to find out which 12 acts have made the shortlist. 

More about: Mercury Music Prize