Elbow, winners of the 2008 Mercury Music Prize

Judges from music’s most respected UK award will on July 21 announce the shortlist for a prestigious prize.

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize Albums of the Year will be revealed at 11.30am.

The Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize, which is open to all genres of music, has received more entries than ever before in 2009. The shortlist of 12 Albums of the Year is chosen by an independent judging panel, which includes musicians, producers, presenters and music journalists. The winner will be crowned on September 8 by Lauren Laverne.

The panel’s decision is based solely on the music on the albums, rather than commercial sales. 2008 winners Elbow enjoyed a significant rise in profile and uplift in sales of their album The Seldom Seen Kid after picking up last year’s prize.

Chair of judges Simon Frith said: “It’s been an intriguing year for UK music and we once again saw a rise in the number of albums entered for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize.”

Past winners include:

2007, Klaxons – Myths of the Near Future.

2006, The Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not

2005, Anthony And The Johnsons – I Am A Bird Now

2004, Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand

2003, Dizzee Rascal – Boy In Da Corner

2002, Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper

2001, PJ Harvey – Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea

2000, Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour Of Bewilderbeast