Organisers of the Irish equivalent to the Mercury Music Price, the Choice Music Prize, have announced their 2007 shortlist of ten albums, selected by a panel of 12 Irish music media types. That panel will now select which of the ten should be awarded the title of Irish Album Of The Year. The shortlist is as follows:
Director - We Thrive On Big Cities (Warner/Atlantic)
The Divine Comedy - Victory for the Comic Muse (EMI/Parlophone)
Duke Special - Songs From the Deep Forest (V2)
The Immediate - In Towers & Clouds (Fantastic Plastic)
David Kitt - Not Fade Away (Dublin Discs)
Messiah J & The Expert - Now This I Have To Hear (Inaudible)
Fionn Regan - The End Of History (Heffa)
Republic Of Loose - Aaagh! (Loaded Dice)
Si Schroeder - Coping Mechanisms (Trust Me I'm A Thief)
Snow Patrol - Eyes Open (Universal/Polydor)
The overall winner will be announced at an event in Dublin on 28 Feb, tickets for which go on sale on 22 Jan. There's more info at http://www.choicemusicprize.com, though whenever I go there it crashes my computer! Press info from [email protected]