Pitchfork

The shortlist for the Nationwide Mercury Prize-- bestowed upon the finest album from the previous year by a British or Irish artist-- was announced today, and as usual, the chatter's more than likely going to surround the records that aren't on the list rather than the dozen that are. Last year's award went to Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future, and you can find its successor in glory somewhere among these 12 platters [via the Guardian]:

Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle - Shine
The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Portico Quartet - Knee-Deep in the North Sea
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss - Raising Sand
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Rachel Unthank and the Winterset - The Bairns

There's some fine choosin', sure, from Radiohead's In Rainbows to Burial's stunning Untrue to Neon Neon's Stainless Style. There's the now-requisite appearance from Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, a winner in 2006 and nominated in 2007 with his primary band and now given the nod for the Last Shadow Puppets' The Age of the Understatement. And there's the usual array of head-scratchers, like Rachel Unthank and the Winterset's The Bairns (who?) and Robert Plant and Alison Krauss' Raising Sand (at least one of those people is so not from the UK).

But no M.I.A.? No props to Coldplay for actually giving us something to work with this time out? No fucking Portishead? Where's the Kate Nash? The Duffy? And if you're gonna throw a bone to jazzbos like Portico Quartet's Knee-Deep in the North Sea, why not fling it in the general direction of Robert Wyatt's awesome Comicopera? Just sayin'.

Burial will be coaxed from his caveThe winners will be announced at a ceremony in London September 9.