News: Mercury Prize Nominations

Announced about one minute ago, here are this year's Mercury Prize award nominations:

Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan - Ballad Of The Broken Seas
Editors - The Back Room
Guillemots - Through The Windowpane
Richard Hawley - Coles Corner
Hot Chip - The Warning
Muse - Black Holes And Revelations
Zoe Rahman - Melting Pot
Lou Rhodes - Beloved One
Scritti Politti - White Bread, Black Bear
Sway - This Is My Demo
Thom Yorke - The Eraser

A surprisingly good list. I only actively dislike one of the albums (although i've not heard two, guess which). Nice to see Campbell & Lanegan, Guillemots, Hot Chip and Richard Hawley up there, as well as Scritti Politti. Shame there's no Kate Bush. This might actually be the best Mercury list for some years, although they have predictably still put a few VERY BORING indie schmindie bands in to satisfy the major labels. I predict a well-deserved win for Richard Hawley, but then this is the award's show where M People's Elegant Slumming beat Pulp's Different Class, so obviously quality is no prediction of a win.

Check out The Beeb for an article with more info, and a picture & headline emphasising the worst band on the list.