Mercury prize 2019: The 1975, Dave, Cate Le Bon and Idles shortlisted
This years often politically inclined nominees also include Black Midi, Foals, Slowthai and jazz collective SEED Ensemble
In large part political and pessimistic in worldview, the albums nominated for this year’s Mercury prize could be interpreted as a treatise on Brexit Britain. They variously contain furious defences of the NHS, existential rage at the news cycle, indictments of online connection, despair at the shortcomings of the British penal system and tributes to the victims of the Grenfell fire.
Unsurprisingly, punk is well represented in a list containing a striking number of first-time nominees: Irish band Fontaines DC are nominated for Dogrel, Bristol’s Idles for Joy As an Act of Resistance, London’s Black Midi for their Rough Trade debut, Schlagenheim, and Northampton rapper Slowthai for Nothing Great About Britain.