Mercury Prize Announces 2012 Shortlist

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize has announced its shortlist of albums in contention for this year's British music prize, and according to Simon Frith who stands on prize's Chair of Judges, the list intends to celebrate the range of British musicians making music in 2012, by including eight debut albums, and four from "established" artists. The Mercury Prize awards show will air on November 1, but before that, the organization will put on a series of one-off shows with artists on the shortlist. The tickets will be free, but they'll ask for a £10 donation to War Child to reserve a set of two. Ticket information will be available here. Check out the list below.

Alt-J - An Awesome Wave

Ben Howard - Every Kingdom

Django Django - Django Django

Field Music - Plumb

Jessie Ware - Devotion

Lianne La Havas - Is Your Love Big Enough?        

Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again       

Plan B - Ill Manors

Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Roller Trio - Roller Trio

Sam Lee - Ground of its Own

The Maccabees - Given to the Wild