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Plan B and Richard Hawley have emerged as the favourites to win this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize wth odds of 4-1 each.
The shortlist of the 12 ‘Albums Of The Year’ chosen by an independent judging panel were announced yesterday afternoon (September 12) at London’s Hospital Club. The final award for the £20,000 prize will be announced on November 1.
Alt-J were previously named as the odds-on favourite for the 2012 prize by bookmakers, but their odds have now slipped to 5-1.
Rupert Adams of bookmakers William Hill said: “This has been a year of musical excellence with these albums representing a diverse range of styles from UK artists. This quality is reflected in the closeness of the odds we’ve given to the 2012 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize ‘Albums Of The Year’ – every album here could be a winner.”
The full list of nominated albums is:
Alt-J – ‘An Awesome Wave’ (5/1)
Richard Hawley – ‘Standing On The Sky’s Edge’ (4-1)
Plan B – ‘Ill Manors’ (4-1)
Sam Lee – ‘Ground Of Its Own’ (10-1)
Lianne La Havas – ‘Is Your Love Big Enough?’ (8-1)
Django Django – ‘Django Django’ (5-1)
The Maccabees – ‘Given To The Wild’ (7-1)
Ben Howard – ‘Every Kingdom’ (8-1)
Jessie Ware – ‘Devotion’ (7-1)
Roller Trio – ‘Roller Trio’ (10-1)
Field Music – ‘Plumb’ (10-1)
Michael Kiwanuka – ‘Home Again’ (8-1)
Reacting to their nomination, Alt-J’s Thom Green said: “It feels very surreal. To be in this position is something I’ve always wanted. I want people to know if there’s anything that you want to do just go out and do it. That’s basically what I did, do what you want and do what you love.”
His bandmate Gwil Sainsbury added: “Wow. It sounds cheesy but it’s kind of like a dream come true. I’ve always watched the Mercuries and been really into them and never thought that we would ever be in the position to get a nomination. So yeah, it’s pretty surreal.”