Mercury Nominations Include Florence, Gaz & Clementine
Florence + the Machine and former Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes are among the nominees for the 2015 Mercury Prize, revealed on BBC 6 Music today (Friday). The coveted award for album of the year, in association with BBC Music, will be decided by a panel of industry experts at a presentation and performance ceremony on 20 November at the BBC Radio Theatre in London. It will be broadcast live on BBC Four and 6 Music.
The 12 nominees include the usual blend of commercial successes, critically-praised releases and left field titles. Florence + the Machine made the list with the hugely popular How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful (Island) as did Coombes with his second solo release on Caroline International, Matador.
26-year-old singer-songwriter Benjamin Clementine’s debut album At Least For Now, which came out n Behind via Virgin EMI in March, is nominated, 
as is another Virgin EMI title, Are You Satisfied? by Kent punk duo Slaves. My Love Is Cool, the first album by alternative rock outfit Wolf Alice, which reached No. 2 in the UK after its release by Dirty Hit/Universal in June, also makes the list.
Coombes, reacting to the nomination live on 6 Music, said of the making of Matador and his nomination: “I was just doing what I was doing and thinking ‘I’m going to record it like this.’ It’s been such a mad year. Im a bit overwhelmed, i don’t quite know how to take it, it’s amazing. Love it!”
The full list of 2015 Mercury Prize nominations is as follows:
Aphex Twin – Syro
Benjamin Clementine – At Least For Now
C Duncan – Architect
Eska – Eska
Florence + The Machine – How Big, How Blue, How Beautiful
Gaz Coombes – Matador
Ghostpoet – Shedding Skin
Jamie xx – In Colour
Róisín Murphy – Hairless Toys
Slaves – Are You Satisfied?
SOAK – Before We Forgot How To Dream
Wolf Alice – My Love Is Cool
UK English
