by Philip Moss
Since its inauguration in 1992 as an alternative to the more commercially minded Brit Awards, The Mercury Prize has aimed to ‘recognise and celebrate artistic achievement, provide a snapshot of the year in music and to help introduce new albums from a range of music genres to a wider audience.’
Former winners have included Primal Scream, Suede, Badly Drawn Boy, last year’s winner, Sampha, and the only two time winner, PJ Harvey. Yet despite picking up a record five nominations, Radiohead have yet to take home the prize.
Each year, an independently selected panel made up of music experts from a variety of backgrounds put together the shortlist. The panel is usually made up of musicians, music journalists, music presenters, music producers and composers, but ‘none of the judges can have an interest in the commercial success of any of the albums being discussed. There are no record label representatives, managers, publishers or music retailers on the panel.’
This year’s twelve 2018 judges are: Clara Amfo – Broadcaster & DJ, Danielle Perry – Broadcaster & Writer, Ella Eyre – Musician and Songwriter, Harriet Gibsone – Deputy Editor with The Guardian Guide, Jamie Cullum – Musician and Broadcaster, Jeff Smith – Head of Music for 6 Music and Radio 2, Lianne La Havas – Musician and Songwriter, Marcus Mumford – Musician and Songwriter, Mike Walsh – Head of Music at Radio X; MistaJam – DJ & Broadcaster, Phil Alexander – Creative Director with Kerrang!/Contributing Editor, Mojo, Will Hodgkinson – Chief Rock & Pop Critic with The Times. The Chair of the judging panel is Jeff Smith.
This year’s nominations in full:
Arctic Monkeys- Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino
Everything Everything-A Fever Dream
Florence & The Machine- High As Hope
Lily Allen- No Shame
Wolf Alice- Visions of a Life
Novelist- Novelist guy
Jorja Smith- Lost & Found
King Krule- The Ooz
Richard Russell- Everything is Recorded
Nadine Shah- Holiday Destination
Sons of Kemet- Your Queen is a Reptile
Noel Gallagher- Who Build The Moon?
As always, the Mercury Prize nominations list does not come without its fair share of controversy, with the pre-announcement favourites, Shame, not making the cut. However, of the list, there are a couple of standouts, as King Krule’s album, The Ooz, made our End of 2017 list, while we have also particularly enjoyed Nadine Shah’s record and the latest Arctic Monkey’s LP.
The winner will be announced at 2018 Awards Show will take place at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith on Thursday 20 September.
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