Nominees for the 2012 Mercury Prize have been announced, and not one of them is Adele or One Direction. Instead, the British bands vying for this year’s “best in the commonwealth” prize include Alt-J, Field Music, and the Roller Trio. The winner will be announced at a U.K. ceremony on Nov. 1; a list of all the nominees is below.
The bands up for the prize aren’t exactly household names in the States, of course, but it's possible they could be—someday. After all, past Mercury Prize winners have included PJ Harvey, The xx, and Franz Ferdinand. Then again, they’ve also included artists like 2002 winner Ms. Dynamite and M People, who not so memorably beat out Blur, Pulp, The Prodigy, and Paul Weller to win the prize in 1994.
2012 Barclaycard Mercury Prize Album Of The Year nominees
Alt-J, An Awesome Wave
Ben Howard, Every Kingdom
Django Django, Django Django
Field Music, Plumb
Jessie Ware, Devotion
Lianne La Havas, Is Your Love Big Enough?
Michael Kiwanuka, Home Again
The Maccabees, Given To The Wild
Plan B, Ill Manors
Richard Hawley, Standing At The Sky’s Edge
Roller Trio, Roller Trio
Sam Lee, Ground Of Its Own