April 27, 2007, Los Angeles: The Shortlist organization announced today the ten finalists for the Shortlist Music Prize, a peer-selected award that recognizes the most creative and adventurous albums of the year. The ten finalists are Band of Horses, Beirut, Bonnie Prince Billy, Cat Power, Girl Talk, Hot Chip, Joanna Newsom, Regina Spektor, Spank Rock and Tom Waits.

The finalists were selected from the initial Long List of sixty nominated albums by a panel of nine Listmakers including Franz Ferdinand, KT Tunstall, Panic at the Disco, Sufjan Stevens and members of Snow Patrol, the Killer and Flaming Lips. Drummer Ronnie Vannucci of the Killers said "the finalists are the backbone of what makes music special in the first place. They are each doing their own thing and it’s beautiful."

According to Shortlist cofounder Greg Spotts, "this is the year of the storyteller. More than half of our ten finalists are wordsmiths who create unique characters and narratives, interpreting our complex world in new ways." Many of these artists employ unusual instruments and sounds, from the harp of Joanna Newsom to the accordion of Beirut to the secondhand percussion of Tom Waits. Nine of the ten nominated albums were released by independent labels, marking the indie sector’s largest share of the finalists in the award’s six-year history.

The winner of this year's Shortlist will be announced in May.

how are we supposed to answer this again?

I still haven't heard a note of Spank Rock (yet), but I'm happy for them.

I'd probably vote Oldham or Waits.

Joanna.

hot chip

I guess I no longer listen to adventerous or creative music. I've only heard two albums on that list and they're Cat Power and Band of Horses. Neither of which I'd call "adventerous". I liked both of them though.

More like SHITlist. Except for BOH, of course.

duh, hot chip.

BUSTED!

ok, that was funny.

Despite my low success rate, I really do try.

hot fucking chip yo

Hah Hah Girl Talk

I'd go with Regina only because she's going to win, not because it's what should win.

I lurv me some Regina and Spank Rock, but Girl Talk wipes the floor with everything else on that list.
Hands down.
Period.
Really.

you can't be serious.

yeah i like girl talk and all but all he's doing is remixing songs, basically.

Tom Waits, of course. Jesus Christ, what an easy one to answer - world class artist and song-writer versus . . . them? What the hell are most of the rest of them even nominated for? Being boring? NONE of them are even remotely in the same class as Waits.

i can't get into tom waits.

It's about the albums they put out in 2006. Orphans is good, but it wouldn't make my top 10 favorite Tom Waits albums. I've gotten pretty tired of most of it, actually.

You're just mad because Snakes and Arrows wasn't released in time to be considered for nomination...haha.

Hmmm...

Hot Chip

You need to clean out ya goddamn ears.

Have you ever even followed the Shortlist prize? It rarely goes to an "older" artist. It's usually the flavor of the month.

I agree that Waits is a treasured artist but he doesn't fit the criteria here. If you want to try and make the point that he's been "adventerous and creative" on albums throughout his career I could see your point but the album he's up for is just more stuff he's done forever. It's good but no different than anything else he's put out over the last 20 years. Just another solid addition to his catalog.