The Nominations for the 2008 Nationwide Mercury Music Prize have just been announced. I'm either getting older or further detached from the current happenings of music however, because there's even less acts that I recognise this year than usual. But that's a good thing- The Arctic Monkeys winning in 2006 was complete nonsense. That said, the Arctic's frontman is still there in some capacity this year thanks to a nomination for his side project, whoever they are, it doesn't matter.

There's a few acts nominated though that I predicted, as both Estelle and Adele are on the list. Portishead's album Third is bizarrely left off, while Radiohead are thankfuly inevitably there. In Rainbows is a great album, and my favourite from last year, and I think it'll be the one that wins the prize. It's the obvious choice at any rate. The full list of nominess for the 2008 prize is below.

• Adele - '19'
• British Sea Power - 'Do You Like Rock Music?'
• Burial - 'Untrue'
• Elbow - 'The Seldom Seen Kid'
• Estelle - 'Shine'
• The Last Shadow Puppets - 'The Age Of The Understatement'
• Laura Marling - 'Alas I Cannot Swim'
• Neon Neon - 'Stainless Style'
• Portico Quartet - 'Knee-Deep In The North Sea'
• Robert Plant And Alison Krauss – 'Raising Sand'
• Radiohead - 'In Rainbows'
• Rachel Unthank And The Winterset – 'The Bairns'

 Now to play catch-up and try and listen to the ones I haven't heard...