The xx, Laura Marling, Mumford & Sons Make Mercury Prize Shortlist

The coveted British album of the year award now awkwardly known as the Barclaycard Mercury Prize has helped put artists like the Arctic Monkeys on the map. As The Guardian points out, the panel of British music critics who award the prize have “always made wildly idiosyncratic choices that often ignore the popular mood,” but sometimes these choices don’t seem so crazy two or three years after the fact. Case in point: the Arctic Monkeys, Elbow, Portishead.

Although last year’s winner, rapper Speech Debelle, didn’t exactly make it big after receiving the prize, this year’s nominees might bring back the “warm, fuzzy ‘Elbow effect.’”

The shortlist for the 2010 Mercury Prize nominees contains several Paste favorites, including Mumford & Sons’ Sigh No More, The xx’s self-titled debut and Laura Marling’s I Speak Because I Can (which, apparently, Ryan Adams likes a lot too). This year’s winner will be announced Sept. 7. Check out the full list of nominees below.

1. Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions
2. Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea
3. Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’ Cheek
4. Foals – Total Life Forever
5. I Am Kloot – Sky at Night
6. Kit Downes Trio – Golden
7. Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
8. Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
9. Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation
10. The xx – The xx
11. Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
12. Wild Beasts – Two Dancers