Analysis: Shining beacon in an otherwise predictable lot

Published on 19/07/2011 14:43

GWILYM Simcock, savour the name. He's a jazz pianist from Bangor, Wales, who won't win this year's Barclaycard Mercury Prize for his album Good Days At Schloss Elmau, but does have the distinction of being just about the only name on this year's newly announced shortlist which couldn't have been anticipated in advance.

Predictable doesn't have to mean dull though and there is at least one shining beacon among the nominees - PJ Harvey's heady, powerful, weird and masterful Let England Shake was installed as the bookies' favourite even before the shortlist was announced.

Harvey has won before, in 2001, with Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea, accepting her award over the telephone from a New York which was still in shock just after the Twin Towers had come down.

It's also a pleasant surprise to see the venerable King Creosote recognised as an outsider bet for Diamond Mine, his haunting collaboration with composer Jon Hopkins. All three of the above mention nominees have sold fewer than 10,000 copies.

• Fiona Shepherd is a music critic and reviewer for The Scotsman