The nine albums in the running for Australia’s premier music prize, the AMP, have been announced.
Gotye
The Australian Music Prize is a $30,000 award for the best album of the year, and the organisers have announced their shortlist of 2011 albums. It’s a great showing for female artists, with three solo artists and a female-fronted band in the running.
Director Scott Murphy said, “2011 was a big year for Australian artist album releases – The 7th AMP produced a long list twice as long as most of the previous prizes highlighting how many great albums were released in this country.”
He added that many artists that just missed the cut included The Panics, Oh Mercy, The Orbweavers, Skipping Girl Vinegar, Oscar & Martin, Ben Salter, Big Scary, Eagle & The Worm, Grace Woodroofe, Husky, Leader Cheetah, Phrase, Teeth & Tongue, Josh Pyke and Drapht.
The previous winners have been The Drones, Augie March, The Mess Hall, Eddy Current Suppression Ring, Lisa Mitchell and Cloud Control.
The winner of the AMP will be announced in a ceremony at the Opera House on Wednesday 8 February.
And the shortlist is:
Abbe May – Design Desire
Adalita – Adalita
Boy & Bear – Moonfire
Gotye – Making Mirrors
Gurrumul – Rralaka
Jack Ladder & The Dreamlanders – Hurtsville
The Jezabels – Prisoner
Kimbra – Vows
The Middle East – I Want That You Are Always Happy
