The Cold Cut

Update: So the list has been announced in a ceremony today, with some notable absences. Duffy, Coldplay and Lightspeed Champion were all left off the list, whilst Laura Marling and Burial both look like serious contenders for the prize. Official list as follows:

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'

Tomorrow morning, the shortlist for the 2008 Mercury Prize is announced. Who should be on the list? NME's potential shortlist was as follows- my selections of their expanded list are highlighted in red. I've included a track of each of my selected albums for you to sample. Download the whole mix below as a zip, take a long listen to my picks, add your own and submit your personal list in the comments.

I'm voting for Lightspeed Champion and Laura Marling as the dark horses that will come and pull the rug out from underneath everyone else.

Who should be on the list?

Mercury Prize Shortlist Sampler.zip (Link 2)

Adele – '19'
Babyshambles – 'Shotter's Nation'
British Sea Power – 'Do You Like Rock Music?' ... Atom
Burial – 'Untrue' ... Archangel
Coldplay – 'Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends' ... Lovers In Japan (Acoustic)
Duffy – 'Rockferry'
Elbow – 'The Seldom Seen Kid' ... Bones Of You
The Enemy – 'We'll Live And Die In These Towns'
Estelle – 'Shine' ... You Are (ft. John Legend)
Foals – 'Antidotes' ... Hummer
Future Of The Left – 'Curses'
The Futureheads – 'This Is Not The World'
Hot Chip – 'Made In The Dark' ... Wrestlers
Jamie Lidell – 'Jim'
Johnny Flynn – 'A Larum'
Kate Nash – 'Made Of Bricks'
Kids In Glass Houses – 'Smart Casual'
The Kills – 'Midnight Boom' The Last Shadow Puppets – 'The Age Of The Understatement' ... Two Hearts In Two Weeks
Laura Marling – 'Alas I Cannot Swim' ... You're No God
Lightspeed Champion – 'Falling Off The Lavender Bridge' ... Dry Lips
Los Campesinos! – 'Hold On Now Youngster' ... You! Me! Dancing!
MIA – 'Kala' ... Paper Planes Mystery Jets – '21' ... Hideaway
Neon Neon – 'Stainless Style' ... I Told Her On Alderaan
The Pigeon Detectives – 'Emergency'
Portishead – 'Third' ... We Carry On
Radiohead – 'In Rainbows' ... House Of Cards
Spiritualized – 'Songs In A&E'
These New Puritans – 'Beat Pyramid'
The Ting Tings – 'We Started Nothing'
Tricky – 'Knowle West Boy'
Wiley – 'Grime Wave'
The Wombats – 'The Wombats Proudly Present... A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation'

With the mercury prize shortlist released a couple of weeks ago, there has been the usual talk of how the prize always goes to an artsy-fartsy jazz group or a classical artist. Well, those people can rest assured: the only dud this year is an album by Basquiat Strings, which sounds hugely thrilling, wouldn't you agree? Well, given that I (and everyone I know) haven't even heard of Basquiat Strings we can be fairly sure that it wont win... which basically means that the 11 other bands (all of whom are great to some extent) can battle it out for the title. Personally, I wouldn't object to the Arctic Monkeys winning again or the Klaxons taking home a first trophy, but given the premise of the Mercury prize it should go to someone who is producing innovative music. This years main contender in that category is Bat For Lashes, the solo project of an extremely talented Natasha Khan, who wrote her Mercury nominated debut album, Fur And Gold, whilst working at a nursery school. I've been told her live shows are fairly special, just as Bjork's are; most of her songs send shivers down your spine: listen to the songs below- the Wizard, the first single from Fur and Gold, is especially different. I hope I'm not alone in thinking that it would be great for someone who started so small to win a prize as big as the Mercury Award....

Bat For Lashes- What's A Girl To Do?
Bat For Lashes- Trophy
Bat For Lashes- Sarah
Bat For Lashes- The Wizard
Bat For Lashes- Bat's Mouth