Britain’s Mercury Prize, the coveted award for the best British album of the last year, has announced its 2016 short list, and it’s got some surprises. David Bowie’s Blackstar, released days before his death, has received a posthumous nomination. (He was previously nominated in 2002 and 2013.) Radiohead’s A Moon Shaped Pool has also been short-listed, now giving the band a record five nominations — though they’ve never won. They pass PJ Harvey, whose latest, The Hope Six Demolition Project, was curiously not nominated this year despite the singer having previously won the Mercury Prize twice.
Other notable snubs this year: Adele’s 25 (her last two albums were both nominated), 2013 winner James Blake’s The Colour in Everything, and Coldplay’s best seller A Head Full of Dreams. Instead, among this year’s diverse class is first-time nominee Skepta’s Konnichiwa, Bat for Lashes’ The Bride, and ANOHNI’s Hopelessness (she previously won the prize in 2005, with Antony and the Johnsons). A panel of British critics and industry insiders — plus, a newly introduced fan vote — will decide this year’s winner, announced on September 15.
Here’s the full list:
ANOHNI, Hopelessness
Bat for Lashes, The Bride
David Bowie, Blackstar
Jamie Woon, Making Time
Kano, Made in the Manor
Laura Mvula, The Dreaming Room
Michael Kiwanuka, Love & Hate
Radiohead, A Moon Shaped Pool
Savages, Adore Life
Skepta, Konnichiwa
The 1975, I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it
The Comet Is Coming, Channel the Spirits