The goal of the Choice Music Prize is to provide exposure for 10 Irish acts every year, both inside and outside Ireland
The winning act will receive €10,000, provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The winner will also receive a specially commissioned award, courtesy of the Recorded Artists and Performers Ltd (RAAP).
The shortlist was selected by a panel of a dozen men and women, true and fair, from the Irish music media.
The overall 2007 Album of the Year will be selected by the judging panel at the Choice Music Prize event at Vicar Street, Dublin, on Wednesday, February 27th.
Tickets for the live event are on sale from all Ticketmaster outlets (€27, including booking fee). Most of the nominees will preform. For more information, visit www.choicemusicprize.com
The shortlist
Act: Adrian Crowley Album: Long Distance Swimmer
The kind of subtle, elegant but quite tensile singer- songwriter material that gives singer-songwriters a very good name.
Act: Cathy Davey Album: Tales of Silversleeve
Fresh, sprightly songs culled from the dreamtime of one of Ireland's most charming female singers.
Act: Delorentos Album: In Love With Detail
All colours in the rock'n'roll rainbow are efficiently highlighted here, courtesy of a band that can sort out the chaff from the wheat in jig-time.
Act: Dry County Album: Unexpected Falls
Dry by name but not by nature, this lot fuse resonant musical passages with lyrics that make sense.
Act: The Flaws Album: Achieving
Vagueness Melodies to beat the opposition, guitar chords that square the circle, and a vocalist that sounds like Scott Walker in his 1960s heyday. What's not to love?
Act: David Geraghty Album: Kill Your Darlings
Geraghty takes time off from his long-standing position in BellX1 and creates an excellent pop/rock record that surprises again and again.
Act: Kila Album: Gambler's Ballet
And can someone tell me how the flippin' heck this lot are on the list? Personal tastes aside, this is an amalgam of trad from hell rhythms and roots shenanigans of the noisiest order.
Act: Róisín Murphy Album: Overpowered
The former Moloko singer dons the garments that sway this way and that while simultaneously fashioning songs that epitomise a lifetime (or at least several years) of swigging champagne.
Act: Stanley Super 800 Album: Louder & Clearer
Inventive, super-soaraway sounds from the outside bet in the Choice bunch. It's the quiet ones you have to watch out for, you know.
Act: Super Extra Bonus Party Album: Super Extra Bonus Party
Did we say the quiet ones? Make way for these rowdy types. If they don't win, we predict a riot.
