SAY Award Shortlist Announced

I keep forgetting to mention the Scottish Album of the Year Award. The shortlist of the ten albums that'll be in the running for the prize has been announced today, so now is as good time as any to finally get around to it, I suppose.

Firstly, a wee bit of background:
The SAY Award was concieved by The Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA). Earlier in the year 100 music and arts industry figures from across Scotland were invited to submit their nominations for the Scottish Album of the Year, before a longlist featuring the 20 highest scoring records was announced on April 12th. That longlist has now been reduced to a shortlist of 10 following the deliberations of a specially invited judging panel. The shortlist features one record voted for by the general public who have been able to listen to all 20 longlisted albums online and via a specially designed SAY Award app. With the voting ‘window’ only open for 24 hours on May 14th, more than 9,000 votes were submitted online and via the app.

The winning album will be announced at a prestigious ceremony in Glasgow Film City on Tuesday 19th June, earning a grand prize of £20,000. The nine runners-up will each receive £1,000. All ten shortlisted finalists will receive an artwork from the winner of a unique SAY Award art commission which celebrates the enduring links that exist between music and art. The commission, valued at £20,000, will be offered to graduates from Scotland’s four principal art schools with the winning graduate (selected, in this pilot year, from Glasgow’s School of Art) producing ten artworks to be donated as prizes for the shortlisted finalists.

The shortlist:

• Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Everything’s Getting Older
• Conquering Animal Sound - Kammerspiel
• Happy Particles - Under Sleeping Waves
• King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
• Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will
• Mungo’s Hi Fi - Forward Ever
• Remember Remember - The Quickening
• Rustie - Glass Swords
• Tommy Smith - Karma
• Twin Atlantic - Free (public vote winners)

Confirmation there that I'm out of touch with what the public likes. Personally I'd be delighted to see any of Bill & Aidan, Conquering Animal Sound, Happy Particles, Mogwai and Remember Remember win the prize, although my public vote went to CAS, because imagine all the fun toys they could buy with twenty grand. Slight disappointment from me that FOUND didn't make the shortlist is balanced a bit by relief that Bwani Junction didn't either.