No Brits make the cut for year's best album award

Published on Sunday 25 October 2009 21:06

KINGS of Leon will go head-to-head with music legend Bob Dylan in a battle to find the year's best album – but no British act has made the shortlist.

Instead the eight-album list for the Uncut Music Award – an international equivalent of the Mercury Music Prize, judged by figures such as Radio 2's Mark Radcliffe and Fleet Foxes star Robin Pecknold – is dominated by US acts.

Among the acclaimed albums competing for the prize, created by leading UK music magazine Uncut and now in its second year, are releases by Wilco, Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear.

Only one act – Tinariwen from Mali – comes from beyond the US, even though British acts such as Doves and Madness were considered for the prize.

They, along with other UK bands including The Horrors, Wild Beasts and Arctic Monkeys, figured on an original longlist of 25 albums.

Nationality, age and sales figures are irrelevant to the judging panel which also includes Absolute Radio DJ Christian O'Connell, Radio 2's Bob Harris, Billy Bragg, Stiff Records founder Dave Robinson and BPI chairman Tony Wadsworth.