Mercury Prize 2016: The nominees
- Published
Anohni described her new album as “an electronic record with sharp teeth”. It certainly doesn’t pull any punches: Drone Bomb Me is written from the perspective of a young Afghan girl begging for death after her family is killed. <br /><br />The lyrics may be brutal, but the music is fragile and rhapsodic.
The Bride is a baroque concept album about a woman whose fiance is killed on his way to their wedding. <br /><br />Pop music rarely explores grief, but singer Natasha Khan embraces the challenge on this dark and intriguing record.
Released just two days before his death, Blackstar was called Bowie’s “parting gift” to his fans. <br /><br />It finds the star coming to terms with his own mortality – the title itself implies a light flickering out – while the music, recorded with a New York jazz band, suggests a journey into the unknown.
Smooth, smart R&B is the order of the day on Jamie Woon’s second album, which was four years in the making (hence the title). <br /><br />Influenced by the likes of D’Angelo and Marvin Gaye, it’s a restrained but beautiful record, built around Woon’s supple soul vocals.
Kano’s first release in six years, Made In The Manor acts as a signpost for the future of grime. <br /><br />Textured, reflective and honest, it marks a move away from the genre's staple of diss tracks and club beats (although it has plenty of those, too).
A second successive Mercury nomination for Laura Mvula, who wrote The Dreaming Room in her producer’s garden shed. <br /><br />Not that you’d know - it’s a wonderfully rich record, drawing on the psalmery, Afro-beat, jazz and the funk licks of Nile Rodgers. She calls it “gospel-delia”.
The stone-solid grooves of Michael Kiwanuka’s second album recall the greats of 1970s soul, from Bill Withers to Curtis Mayfield. <br /><br />His soul-baring lyrics search for meaning in troubled times, with Black Man In A White World offering a caustic look at his experiences growing up in London.
With their fifth nomination, Radiohead become the most-shortlisted act in Mercury Prize history.<br /><br />They may even stand a chance of winning this time, as the melodic, emotionally naked songs of A Moon Shaped Pool have given them career-best reviews.
That clenched fist on the cover is a statement of intent: Savages' second album will beat you about the ears (in the nicest possible way).<br /><br />The record finds singer Jehnny Beth mulling over love - not in the sappy, Michael Bolton sense, but as a messy, all-consuming force of nature.
The second grime album on this year’s shortlist is a much angrier affair – as Skepta tackles police harassment and his anger at British politics. He even references the gunpowder plot on the title track.<br /><br />Largely self-produced, it pulses with nervous energy while raising the bar for British rap.
A sprawling, ambitious record, that recalls the pop-rock crossover of INXS in their prime.<br /><br />Flamboyant frontman Matt Healy puts his scars on show, discussing everything from cocaine addiction to the effects of post-natal depression on his relationship with his mother.
The space-age pulse of Channel The Spirit is more accessible than you might expect from an album of cosmic jazz.<br /><br />Shabaka Hutchings’ frenetic saxophone work is the highlight, while titles like Slam Dunk In A Black Hole show no-one’s taking this too seriously.