If you’re a U.K. musician making alternative music, the Mercury Prize is one of the greatest honors you can achieve. The annual award celebrates the best full-length from a British Isles-based artist and regularly goes to a dark horse, a left-field candidate largely ignored by the mainstream press. This year’s 12 finalists are in, and there are plenty of names likely to be unfamiliar to most North American listeners.
FKA Twigs Is a Woman of Mystery — And She Likes It That Way
The two biggest names on the shortlist are Blur frontman Damon Albarn and experimental newcomer FKA Twigs. Albarn pleased a lot of Blur fans with his 2014 solo effort Everyday Robots, and Twigs turned heads with her dazzling debut LP1, which regularly defies the R&B tag many were quick to toss on it.
The other finalists are:
Anna Calvi – One Breath
Bombay Bicycle Club – So Long, See You Tomorrow
East India Youth – Total Strife Forever
GoGo Penguin – v2.0
Jungle – Jungle
Kate Tempest – Everybody Down
Nick Mulvey – First Mind
Polar Bear – In Each and Every One
Royal Blood – Royal Blood
Young Fathers – Dead
The winner, voted on by a panel of British critics, musicians, DJs, and others, will be announced Oct. 29.
Hear FKA Twigs Cover Sam Smith’s ‘Stay With Me’
James Blake took home 2013’s prize for Overgrown, beating out challengers like the Arctic Monkeys, David Bowie and Disclosure. Previous winners include P.J. Harvey (twice), Pulp, Franz Ferdinand and Portishead.