12 British albums that deserve Mercury nods in 2014

At 5.30pm today, the Mercury Music Prize will announce their shortlist for nominations, with a panel of industry bods selecting the 12 albums that they feel represent the best that Britain has had to offer in the past 12 months. One of those albums will go on to win the award, which includes a nice trophy, some £20,000 upfront, and a lot more from the sales generated by the exposure.

We've chosen 12 albums that we think should be in with a shot of winning. Like the real Mercury shortlist, our criteria for selection is based on records by British passport holders that were given a physical release between September 10th 2013 and September 8th 2014 that we believe are the best albums that the UK has to offer. This isn't necessarily an 'alternative' albums list, as we fully expect some of these to get nominated, and maybe even win the prize – after all, last year we included James Blake's eventual winner 'Overgrown'.