The 2017 Hyundai Mercury Prize ‘Albums of the Year’ were announced today. Including nods for Blossoms, alt-J, The xx, Sampa, Stormzy, The Big Moon, and Kate Tempest amongst other names, you can view the full shortlist below.
The 2017 Albums of the Year are:
alt-j – Relaxer
Blossoms – Blossoms
Dinosaur -Together, As One
Ed Sheeran – Divide
Glass Animals -How to be a Human Being
J Hus – Common Sense
Kate Tempest – Let Them Eat Chaos
Loyle Carner – Yesterday’s Gone
Sampha – Process
Stormzy – Gang Signs & Prayer
The Big Moon – Love in the 4th Dimension
The xx – I See You
The Hyundai Mercury Prize ‘Albums of the Year’ says it aims to ‘celebrate and promote the best of UK music recognising
artistic achievement across a range of contemporary music genres.’ The shortlist was chosen by an independent judging panel and was revealed at a Launch event, hosted by BBC Music’s Huw Stephens on 27 July 2017.
The judges said “This year’s Hyundai Mercury Prize shortlist celebrates the remarkable power of British music. What these artists have in common is an infectious pleasure in music making and an arresting sense of urgency about the music they make. They delight in exploring musical possibilities and refusing to be pinned down by genre conventions.”
The twelve 2017 Hyundai Mercury Prize judges are:
Phil Alexander – Editor-in-Chief, Mojo and Q; Clara Amfo – Broadcaster; Jamie Cullum – Musician and Broadcaster; Ella Eyre – Musician and Songwriter;
Harriet Gibsone – Music News Editor, The Guardian/TheGuardian.com; Lianne La Havas – Musician and Songwriter; Will Hodgkinson – Chief Rock & Pop Critic The Times; MistaJam – DJ and Broadcaster; Marcus Mumford – Musician and Songwriter; Jeff Smith – Head of Music, 6 Music and Radio 2; Jessie Ware – Musician and Songwriter; and Mike Walsh – Head of Music, Radio X.
The Chair of the judging panel is the music executive, Tony Wadsworth CBE.
The 2017 Awards Show will take place on Thursday 14 September at the Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith.
The event will feature live performances from many of the shortlisted artists and the evening will culminate in the announcement of the overall winner of the 2017 Hyundai Mercury Prize for ‘Album of the Year’.
What are your thoughts on the shortlist?Who missed out?
3 Comments
My question is why on earth would any music writer would cover this non-story?
On what basis is a group of privileged people trying to show their diversity and broad minds (whilst simultaneously celebrating the biggest sellers, ignoring crimes of cultural appropriation and ignoring huge swathes of the variety of music) of any interest to anyone?
I have to say this is the most deeply mediocre of lists. I do question what the point of Mercury is compared to the Brits these days, when Ed Sheeran is nominated despite already being hopelessly over exposed and successful? Of the others only Sampa and Kate Tempest interest. The xx and big moon albums are decent and Stormzy has already had a big push. Alt-J are tedious and Blossoms are hopeless pastiche. Overall a few exceptions apart its a deeply uninspiring and corporate list with a lack of acts who would benefit from the exposure.
“Alt-J are tedious and Blossoms are hopeless pastiche” is a pretty bang on assessment!
I don’t know… I am increasingly coming to the view that awards like this are beyond pointless (unless you are a bean counter at a major).