It’s that time of year again as last week saw 12 of the finest releases of the last year selected for the Mercury Prize short-list. Launched in 1992 the Mercury Prize remains one of the few awards to still hold some merit in these X-Factor driven times and once you’re a UK or Irish artist and actually bother to apply (it’s £195.50 if you fancy your chances…) then you’re in with a shout. The eventual winner will receive £20,000 but more importantly a shed load of press coverage which should see a healthy jump in album sales in the coming months (cue dollar signs in Record Label executive’s eyes). There have been some outstanding albums this year so this was always going to be an interesting set of nominees in terms of wild cards and exclusions and perhaps the most notable name on the list, certainly to us on the … There’s more →