Our annual alternative to The Hyundai Mercury Prize is here.
This year, there were so many ‘but what about’ and ‘no, wait, you HAVE TO include’ arguments from our team, that we decided to extend the list to break with Mercury tradition and feature 20 albums.
The Neptune Music Prize nominees are album releases by exceptional British & Irish musicians. They were released in the time period to be eligible for this year’s prize (August 2015 - July 2016). Once again we excluded anyone who was featured on the Mercury shortlist.
The whole idea of this prize is to shine a light on some of the albums which either missed out on this year’s Mercury Prize list, perhaps due to the fact they couldn’t afford to enter or possibly because they don’t quite have the profile or instrastructure behind them. Or whatever.
Each of these albums is special to members of our team and offers a unique spin on the modern world. There’s everything from modern classical to devil-punching hardcore to refreshing transitional releases from legendary acts.
The discovery of something you might have missed is the whole point of this ‘list’, so we hope that you take the time to explore or revisit as many of the nominees as possible before casting your vote.
You get just one vote for your favourite album on this list. Feel free to share your favourite tracks and celebrate your choice in the comments below.
#the Neptune Music Prize 2016 - Nominees
- Anna Meredith - Varmints (Moshi Moshi)
- The Anchoress - Confessions of a Romance Novelist (Kscope)
- Black Peaks - Statues (Sony)
- Fiona Brice - Postcards From… (Bella Union)
- Darren Hayman - Thankful Villages (Rivertones)
- Daughter - Not To Disappear (4AD/Glassnote)
- Desert Mountain Tribe - Either That or the Moon (Metropolis)
- Floating Points - Elaenia (Beat)
- Future of the Left - The Peace & Truce of Future of the Left (Remote Control)
- Garbage - Strange Little Birds (Stunvolume)
- The Kills - Ash & Ice (Domino)
- Martha - Blisters In the Pit of My Heart (Fortuna Pop!/Dirtnap)
- Meilyr Jones - 2013 (Moshi Moshi)
- Melt Yourself Down - Last Evenings On Earth (The Leaf Label)
- Muncie Girls - From Caplan to Belsize (Animal Style)
- Pet Shop Boys - Super (x2/Kobalt)
- PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project (Island/Vagrant)
- Suede - Night Thoughts (Suede Ltd. / Warner)
- Shura - Nothing’s Real (Polydor/Interscope)
- Three Trapped Tigers - Silent Earthling (Superball)
##More Info
Voting closes at midday on September 15th and the winner will be revealed on our Facebook and Twitter accounts shortly after.
To vote, simply sign up for a new account on these brand new forums (sadly, if you had an existing account, we can’t transfer over your old passwords just yet) and click for the ONE album you feel should win.
##Listen To The Nominees
Here’s a Spotify playlist with a sample track from each album and then all of the records in full.