ONE SPECTOR-INFLUENCED chanteuse, two synth-heavy bands, two rappers, two dark songstresses and an album romanticising life in a Scottish village are amongst the nominees in this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize.

Metronomy, Adele, Everything Everything, Ghostpoet, Anna Calvi, Tinie Tempah, Elbow, Gwilym Simcock, James Blake, PJ Harvey, Katy B and Jon Hopkins & King Creosote make up the 12 nominees who come from a variety of musical backgrounds, and all are based in the UK.

The Mercury Prize has been a tastemaker for popular music since 1992, with previous winners including The XX in 2010.

It’s second time around for PJ Harvey, who won the award for Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea in 2001, and Elbow, whose Seldom Seen Kid won the top spot in 2008.

Last year, Ireland’s Villagers were among the nominees, while Lisa Hannigan was nominated in 2009, but this year our only claim to fame is that James Blake is one-quarter Irish.

Simon Frith, chair of judges for the awards said:

This year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize shortlist highlights the remarkable possibilities of what can be achieved with music – the grand gesture and telling detail, albums that are dramatic, ambitious and artful, emotional and affectionate, funny and profound.

But as always, not everyone is happy with the nominations, proof that there is nothing like an awards ceremony to have people exclaiming ‘I can’t BELIEVE you didn’t choose The Ironic Beaches!!!’