Another year and another Mercury Prize shortlist for us to dive into. Before we argue with each other about the actual Shortlist (podcast event of the year incoming), let’s shout about the albums we would nominate ourselves.
Using the same rules as the actual prize, here are the albums we would pick for the Picky Bastards Mercury Prize Shortlist 2025.
Katie Burke – Lily Allen – West End Girl
The album that instantly came to mind when thinking about the best British release of last year, for me, was Lily Allen‘s West End Girl. I surprised myself with this one – and to be honest, also spent some time contemplating who else might be “more deserving” of a spot. Was I just reminiscing over its quality because of the shock factor and sheer quantity of column inches (or digital equivalent) that came about on its release, or just walking the line between being a picky bastard and a bit of a snob?
I relistened a few times just to make sure, and I stand by my original reaction. The album’s storytelling element – a fictional (is it?!) recount of a relationship breakdown and the deep dive into sexual exploits and betrayal therein – is backed up by a huge breadth of musical styles, making it enjoyable as a full-album listen while still featuring a good number of catchy, pop ear-worms that place Allen’s witty, self-aware lyricism front and centre. ‘Pussy Palace’ and ‘4Chan Stan’ are two personal favourites (arguably the most headline grabbing) – but ‘Ruminating’ manages to musically emulate 4am panicked relationship thoughts incredibly well, so that by the time the song reaches the peak of “what a fucking line” – you’re almost tempted to drop your jaw in solidarity.
It may have been an album that commanded attention through speculation and gossip – did the “Duane Reade bag with the handles tied” really exist?! – but that’s not to say it wasn’t well deserved.
Will Collins – Boards of Canada – Inferno
For various reasons, this has been my worst year for finding time to listen to new music since the days of dial-up internet. That said, this sparse 12-month period of listening has still thrown up some absolute gems. Probably top of the list is Inferno, the newest record from Boards of Canada. Whilst still trading in the moody electronica for which they are known, the music feels more expansive, more widescreen than on previous outings. There is a richness to the production which makes the music even more immersive than previous records. Each synth line, throbbing bass drone and skittering drum beat is given space to breathe, whilst also combining to form a beautiful wall of noise. The music conveys a palpable sense of claustrophobia and paranoia, menace loitering in the off-kilter melodies and droney soundscapes.
The tracks are often fleshed out with unearthly and disquieting samples and the record feels at times like a journey through a psyche on the edge of collapse. Even upbeat tracks like ‘You Retreat In Time and Space’, which with its glistening synths could be soundtracking the celebratory climax to a science fiction film, offer only brief respite. But it’s the kind of disaster you can’t tear your eyes from and there is something perversely thrilling about the way the record leans into its end-times despair. Although not a capital P political record, there is definitely a political element to the way that it has captured the sense of a despairing society that seems possibly to have gone past the point of no return. Optimistic it may not be, but it is a beautiful and captivating record nonetheless.
James Spearing – Dominie Hooper – In This Body Lives
It feels odd to be putting this music that is so tied to person and place forward to be a potential winner of an album award, when witnessing the person and the place is where it truly comes alive. There’s no mercury for live music however so an album award it had to be. In truth this was an easy choice, it being the only British album I’ve actually bought during the eligibility period.
That’s not to say this was a default choice – I truly believe it’s the best album. It won’t be for everyone with the abrasive sounds of unconventional cello technique, which, with the way things swerved sharply toward the mainstream last year, probably guarantees it won’t be on the actual shortlist. What it does have that should appeal, if you give it the time it deserves (and again the live experience helps here), is the ritualistic element of singing in unison and call and response and the deep connection to nature. At just 33 minutes in length Dominie packs plenty in, making the album’s impact all the more stark. Judges beware – it was released on 31st October, so ignore what may well be the first ever haunted nominee at your peril.
Fat Roland – Blawan – Sick Elixir
When he was a teenager, Barnsley producer Jamie ‘Blawan’ Roberts worked on a maggot farm. He recalls the stench of ammonia as the larvae feasted on rotting minced meat. Just picture the maggots. Go on, picture them. Wriggling, writhing, relentlessly digesting, dead flesh upon dead flesh, the suffocating pungency of toxic waste.
Fast forward two-and-a-half decades later, and Blawan’s XL Recordings album SickElixir is that rotting flesh made incarnate. The album’s opening gasps sound like someone trying to shove their own head down a toilet, which is really difficult if you actually think about it. The rusted metallic onslaught that follows is unlike anything else released in the past 12 months. Sub-electro beats shatter before our ears, excoriating synths petrify into rusted shards, and Blawan’s demolished vocals sound dragged to hell and back. It has the energy of the Prodigy prodding their finger into an electrical socket for all of eternity.
This is the album the pongy Barnsley farmer was destined to make, and it really should win the Mercury. It’s the noise of maggots screaming over the decades; compositions made from decomposition, and brilliantly so.
Lisa Whiteman-Pierce – Boards of Canada – Inferno
I had part-prepared a case outlining why newly-crowned Queen of The Comeback, Lily Allen, should be shortlisted for, and indeed win, the Mercury Prize 2026. Would West End Girl still have been brilliant if it wasn’t (in part, for the lawyer’s sake) autobiographical? Yes, but not *as* brilliant. Good on her, however, as I’m confident she’s a shoo-in for the award, I can safely cast my vote elsewhere.
Boards of Canada – Inferno is my wishlist nominee for 2026. After a 13 year gap, this is an utterly stunning return to trippy, fantasy form with a record that comes over you like gentle, but not-without-threat waves. As we should expect, there is no filler here, but some gripped me and wouldnt let go, so if checking out a handful of tracks, you’d not do wrong with ‘Naraka’, ‘Arena Americanada’ and ‘Prophecy at 1420MHz’. If Young Fathers hadn’t gloriously soundtracked the latest in the 28 Years Later series, Inferno could have stepped in. 10/10 hard recommend.
Matt Paul – Mandy, Indiana – Urgh!
The most frustrating music award is back: The Mercury Prize. Every year, I trick myself into thinking that they know what they’re talking about, and then we get Sam Fender or Ezra Collective. If sanity reins in 2026 we should at least see a nomination for Mandy, Indiana. For their second album URGH, they have taken everything that made them great, but made it more visceral and bone-shaking. Their brand of disconcerting electronic noise rock rings true throughout, as this album is a testament to human struggle and perseverance. It’s not fun. But it’s damn good.
Rick Larson – Lily Allen – West End Girl
The Mercury Prize has lost its way. The prize, ostensibly created as an alternative to the BritPops, has had a confusing history to say the least, but last year’s short list and winner suggests that the people behind the prize have no fucking idea what they are trying to promote or reward. Its own website touts the prize as being in the same vein as the Booker Prize. That literary prize has done a solid job of giving you, the audience, an entry into the best, sometimes challenging, fiction that the UK and Ireland has to offer. But, last year’s Mercury Prize went to somebody improbably named “Sam Fender” with an album of interest only if you ever wondered what a brain damaged Tom Petty might have come up with the help of AI. It’s unlistenable slop and there is nothing English, Welsh, Scottish or Irish about it. Meanwhile, Lambrini Girls, straight outta Brighton with an absolutely scorching take on trad British punk, went unheeded. Ah, but good thing you gave Pulp a nod. At least there is a homegrown term that demands application to the prize committee: Wankers.
But, this is a new year which promises new outrages. Olivia Deane is going to win, isn’t she? At least she’s pleasing to listen to, but you might as well just merge the MP with the BritPops if that happens. I find the landscape of potential nominees a bit underwhelming this year. The UK seems saturated in neo-soul/r&b at the moment like a big ass Starbucks. Send me your hate mail, but the interesting stuff is coming out of the former colonies right now. Mandy, Indiana might be a welcome, edgy pick but I suspect that is an album people only pretend to listen to in its entirety. The debut by Modern Woman, Johnny’s Dreamworld, is worthy of the boost a nomination could provide.
Ok, you want an answer: I’d like to see Lily Allen nominated, even though I can’t listen more than once or twice to an album about David Harbour’s dildo collection. She should have won for Alright,Still so give her the prize twenty years late.
Fran Slater – Joshua Burnside – It’s Not Going to be Okay
I’ll start by saying that James might have made the perfect pick for this article above, but in the interest of mixing it up I’ll go for another deserving nominee.
In many ways the most simplistic album anyone has chosen for our Mercury wishlist, Joshua Burnside’s latest took a little while to click for me. It is, at the basic level, a man singing indie-folk songs over an acoustic guitar – there’s loads of those things about, right? So what makes this one special?
Well, I’ll tell you. This album is a sometimes heartbreaking, often funny, and always cathartic reflection on dealing with the grief of losing a friend long before their time. It’s stories are told with humour, with humility, and with searing honesty. It sounds simple, but the music often matches the complexity of the words. It is probably very much a long shot to be on this list, but it would be hugely deserving of a place.
Picky Bastards 