[News] Mercury Music Prize Nominations Announced

Last night the nominations for the Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize were announced and it's full of some of our favourite albums from the past 12 months. In past years we've seen PJ Harvey, The xx and Arctic Monkeys take the honour and the £20000 cheque home but this time it'll be be between the list below. Let us know how you feel about the list and who you'd have win the prize.

Alt-J’s An Awesome Wave

Ben Howard’s Every Kingdom

Django Django’s Django Django

Field Music’s Plum

Jessie Ware’s Devotion

Lianne Le Havas’ Is Your Love Big Enough

Michael Kiwanuka’s Home Again

Plan B’s Ill Manners

Roller Trio’s Roller Trio

Richard Hawley’s Standing at the Sky’s Edge

Sam Lee’s Ground of Its Own

The Maccabees’ Given to the Wild

[Listen] Richard Hawley - "You Haunt Me"

Following his new direction, Steel City's  Richard Hawley and his new sound have been going down a treat. The seventh solo studio album Standing At The Sky's Edge, is out now and he's also set to start a singles club shortly too more details of which can be found over on his website. For now though let's listen to the Pulp crooner at his best in this dark and twisted track, "You Haunt Me" below. 

If you missed the lead single from the new album, "Leave Your Body Behind You", it's available for your perusal over here.

[Listen] Richard Hawley - "Leave Your Body Behind You"

Following up his 2009 release, Truelove's Gutter, Sheffield legend Richard Hawley is back with a new single, "Leave Your Body Behind You" from his upcoming seventh solo studio album Standing At The Sky's Edge, which is out on May 7th. The single, which was inspired by the grief felt at the pasing of some of his friends, encourages us to accept how tiny we are in the grand scheme of things and to try to make the most of what we have. Hawley says of the song, “So much damage has been done to this world by people who get all their knowledge from one book – be it The Bible or whatever.” He added, “If we could just allow ourselves to be liberated by the fact that this is our only time here, we could just get on with what really matters. I really think we could have put a man on the moon 1,000 years ago if we accepted that.”

The track is a bit of a departure from the typical Hawley record, bringing elements of psychedellic almost spacey kind of rock, that still manage to remain no less stunning than any of his previous work. Folks in the UK will be able to grab the track on April 2nd as a digital download, followed by a 10" vinyl version that will be paried with another new track, "You Haunt Me" for Record Store Day and in addition will be his first release for the Richard Hawley Singles Club. You can learn more about the singles club over on his website. The two-track download will also be available on May 7th.

Hawley will be performing on June 8th at London HMV Forum as well as headlining that Sunday night (6/10) at the No Direction Home Festival all. He'll also be playing the main stage at Latitude Festival on Saturday July 14th.

[Watch] Arctic Monkeys - "You and I" (Official Video)

We only just got to enjoy the B-Side to Arctic Monkeys' "You and I" over the weekend but today comes the official video for the track. The track features former Pulp member Richard Hawley and the track is actually said to be by The Death Ramps also know as Turner and co's alter ego. The video sees footage of the guys in the studio recording the track cut alongside shots of them riding motorbikes and vintage cars around. They seem to be into that quite a bit now huh?

As well as the cool looking visuals the band will be heading out on tour with none other than The Black Keys. Dates can be found over here. As well as the possibility of a live DVD recorded at their huge homecoming shows last year too. Sweet.

[Listen] Arctic Monkeys feat. Richard Hawley - "You & I" (B-side)

"Black Treacle," the next single from Arctic Monkeys' fourth studio album Suck It and See, is set to be released on February 21st, and accompanying the single will be b-side "You & I," which features former Pulp member Richard Hawley. The b-side sees Arctic Monkeys taking care of the instrumentation while Hawley assumes the duty of lead vocals, so give the result a listen below, courtesy of We All Want Someone To Shout For.

The 7" "Black Treacle" single is out on February 21st via Domino Records.

[Watch] Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker, Lisa Hannigan - "Silent Night"

You guys better be constantly chewing on candy canes and be covered in tinsel by now, because we are quickly approaching Christmas! I don't know about you, but I am loving how many artists are spreading the holiday cheer this year (even if some of them may be doing it JUST for marketing purposes only). Here we have Richard Hawley, Jarvis Cocker and Lisa Hannigan performing the Christmas classic, "Silent Night". Loving every moment of it.