Mercury Music Prize 2009: The Shortlist

Twelve nominations have been announced for probably Britain's most prestigious annual music prize, the Mercury Music Award. The award is given along with £20,000 ($33,000) to the maker of the most impressive British or Irish album of the last 12 months, according to a panel of industry experts. Among the nominees are Bat for Lashes' Two Suns, Florence and the Machine's Lungs, Kasabian's West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum, and self-titled releases by Glasvegas, La Roux and Friendly Fires. But only retro electro-pop duo La Roux have the honor of also appearing on a rival award shortlist simultaneously announced by cheeky pop blog Popjustice. Their singles-based Twenty Quid Music Prize nominees include La Roux's "In For The Kill", plus eleven more including Lily Allen and Little Boots. Both prizes will announce their winners on September 8: the Mercury after a star-studded televised ceremony, the Popjustice after a "London judging debacle." What are the chances of La Roux being £20,020 richer seven weeks from now?

Here's the full Mercury shortlist, with odds provided by bookmaker William Hill:

Bat for Lashes - Two Suns (6/1)
Florence & The Machine - Lungs (5/1)
Friendly Fires - Friendly Fires (8/1)
Glasvegas - Glasvegas (6/1)
Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum (5/1)
La Roux - La Roux (6/1)
Led Bib - Sensible Shoes (10/1)
Lisa Hannigan - Sea Sew (8/1)
Speech Debelle - Speech Therapy (8/1)
Sweet Billy Pilgrim - Twice Born Men (10/1)
The Horrors - Primary Colours (8/1)
The Invisible - The Invisible (10/1)

So what's your favorite record from that list? Or who do you think will win the prize, regardless of your personal preference? I'd love Bat for Lashes to win the prize, because not only is Two Suns one of my favorite albums of the year, but her beautiful first album Fur and Gold was nominated two years ago but lost out to Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future. So I'm cheering for Natasha Khan! Here she is on Letterman, performing recent single "Daniel":

--Ally @ SoundUnwound

SoundUnwound's editorial team write about the latest big music news and quirky stories which catch the eye. We'll be posting a selection of these news stories on Chordstrike every week; for much, much more, visit SoundUnwound.com, the new music site from IMDb and Amazon.