• News

• All

Jul 25, 2024 By Marina Malin and Mark Redfern

The 2024 Mercury Prize just announced their 12 Albums of the Year nominees for 2024. Highlights of this year’s nominees include The Last Dinner Party, Charli XCX, Beth Gibbons, English Teacher, and CMAT, among others. Find the full list below.

The 12 albums are chosen by an independent judging panel that acknowledges British and Irish artists’ achievement across genres. The artists must have a UK release date between July 15 2023 and July 12 2024.

British five-piece, The Last Dinner Party was nominated for their debut album, Prelude to Ecstasy on Island. Read our 9/10 review here. Plus read our May 2023 interview with The Last Dinner Party, which was likely the band’s first ever interview with an American publication.

Just last month, Charli XCX released her viral Brat via Atlantic, which was nominated.

Beth Gibbons of Portishead released her nominated solo album debut Live Outgrown. When Gibbons shared the album’s lead single, “Floating on a Moment,” it was one of our Songs of the Week. Then when she shared its second single, “Reaching Out,” it was again one of our Songs of the Week. Finally, the last premeditated track before the album’s release, “Lost Changes” was also one of our Songs of the Week. Read our review of Live Outgrown.

English Teacher’s nominated This Could Be Texas was released in April on Island. When they released “R&B” before the album was released, it was nominated as one of our Songs of the Week.

Irish singer CMAT was nominated for her sophomore album Crazymad, For Me which was released in October on Awal. “Stay For Something” was one of our Songs of the Week. Read our review of Crazy Mad, For Me.

Last year, Ezra Collective won the Mercury Prize, becoming the first jazz artist to win the award. Little Simz won in 2022. Arlo Parks won in 2021. Michael Kiwanuka won in 2020. British rapper Dave won in 2019. Wolf Alice in 2018. In 2017 Sampha won, the year before it was Skepta, and the year before that it was Benjamin Clementine. The Mercury Prize started out strong with Primal Scream’s Screamadelica winning in 1992 and Suede’s self-titled debut winning in 1993. There have been lots of great artists who have also won since, including Pulp, Elbow, Portishead, Franz Ferdinand, and others. Although they don’t always get it right and there have been some forgettable winners as well.

Mercury Prize Nominees:

Barry Can’t Swim: When Will We Land?

Berwyn: Who Am I

Beth Gibbons: Lives Outgrown

Cat Burns: Early Twenties

Charli XCX: Brat

CMAT: Crazymad, For Me

Corinne Bailey Rae: Black Rainbows

Corto.alto: Bad With Names

English Teacher: This Could Be Texas

Ghetts: On Purpose, With Purpose

Nia Archives: Silence Is Loud

The Last Dinner Party: Prelude To Ecstasy

Subscribe to Under the Radar’s print magazine.
Support Under the Radar on Patreon.