Mercury Rising: The Mercury Prize Award Nominees 2014

Read More Royal Blood Already making noise in their native Britain after pulverizing debut single "Out of The Black", Royal Blood (23 year-old vocalist/bassist Mike Kerr and 25 year-old drummer Ben Thatcher) …

It’s that time of year again for UK music—

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize promotes the best of UK and Irish music and the artists who produce it, and the 12 ‘Albums of the Year’ Mercury Prize nominees have recently been announced:

Anna Calvi - One Breath
Bombay Bicycle Club - So Long, See You Tomorrow
Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
East India Youth - Total Strife Forever
FKA Twigs - LP1
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 first Mercury Prize took place in 1992 and was won by Primal Scream for their album 'Screamadelica' and the Prize’s main objectives are to provide a snapshot of the year in music, to encourage debate and discussion about music, and to help introduce new albums from a variety of musical genres to a wider audience.

Each of the 12 nominees receives a specially commissioned ‘Album of the Year’ trophy and the overall winner receives £20,000 and a special winner's trophy. More significantly, the Prize can ignite public awareness of the winning album, and increase the profiles of all the shortlisted artists.

The winner is announced on an Awards broadcast that airs in the UK on October 29, but many of the nominees are currently on tour, with several playing locally in Minneapolis over the next several weeks, including Royal Blood playing TONIGHT:

Bombay Bicycle Club – October 13 at First Avenue

FKA Twigs – November 14 at Fine Line Music Café

Jungle – November 9 at First Avenue

Nick Mulvey – September 26 at 7^th Street Entry

Royal Blood – TONIGHT at Mill City Nights AND opening for The Pixies Oct 11 at State Theatre

john ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com/weheartmusic