Shortlist For 2012 Mercury Music Prize Announced

The shortlist of nominees for the 2012 Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize has been announced, with 12 artists/albums listed to be in the running for the prestigious British prize.

The list is led by the hotly-tipped Alt-J, who also recently announced two shows in Australia for October. The quartet recently dropped their debut record An Awesome Wave to much praise worldwide.

The shortlist also includes Splendour In The Grass acts Django Django for their self-titled record, Michael Kiwanuka for Home Again, and buzzworthy singer/songwriter Jessie Ware for her stellar album Devotion.

The full list of nominees include:

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?
Maccabees - Given to the Wild
Michael Kiwanuka - Home Again
Plan B - Ill Manors
Richard Hawley - Standing at the Sky's Edge
Roller Trio - Roller Trio
Sam Lee - Ground Of Its Own

Past winners have included PJ Harvey, The xx and more. The winner of this year's Mercury Music Prize will be announced around October, with no official date scheduled just yet.