Every year, the British press makes a big hullabaloo over the Mercury Prize, the award given to one album that came out of the UK or Ireland. The British Phonographic Industry And British Association Of Record Dealers chooses a group of luminaries, who then vote one one outstanding album. This morning, the Mercury Prize folks unveiled this year’s list of 12 nominees, and only a couple of them have ever been up for the Prize before.

As Rolling Stone points out, there’s exactly one nominee on this year’s list who’s already won a Mercury Prize: Bernard Butler, whose old band Suede won the second-ever Mercury Prize with their self-titled 1993 debut. This year, Butler is up for For All Our Days That Tear The Heart, his collaboration with the movie star Jessie Buckley. The other past nominee is rapper Little Simz, who was nominated for Grey Area in 2019 and who’s now being recognized for her 2021 album Sometimes I Might Be Introvert.

There’s one commercial juggernaut on this year’s list: Harry Styles, for Harry’s House. Other intriguing nominees include hyped-up and genuinely good acts like Wet Leg and Yard Act, and the list also includes Sam Fender, Kojey Radical, Gwenno, Joy Crookes, Fergus McCreadie, Nova Twins, and Self Esteem. Here’s the full list of nominees:

Jessie Buckley & Bernard Butler – For All Our Days That Tear The Heart
Joy Crookes – Skin
Sam Fender – Seventeen Going Under
Gwenno – Tresor
Fergus McCreadie – Forest Floor
Kojey Radical – Reason To Smile
Little Simz – Sometimes I Might Be An Introvert
Nova Twins – Supernova
Self Esteem – Prioritise Pleasure
Harry Styles – Harry’s House
Wet Leg – Wet Leg
Yard Act – The Overload

The Mercury Prize ceremony goes down 9/8 at London’s Eventim Apollo. Last year, Arlo Parks won it for Collapsed In Sunbeams.