This year's Mercury Prize shortlist has just been announced. The Mercury Prize is an annual award given to the British or Irish artist deemed to have released the best album in the preceding year. Past winners include Franz Ferdinand, Badly Drawn Boy, Dizzee Rascal, Ms Dynamite, etc.; but the best part of the MP is the obscure shortlisters that even finger-on-the-pulse musicblogger Sean Michaels confesses never to have heard of, sometimes. A lot of my favourite songs are from artists I discovered through the MP shortlists, so I'd highly recommend checking them out.
Also, because it's Sillytech (sorry, Velourg), my pick for this year's winner: Estelle.
