PJ Harvey's Stories From the City, Stories From the Sea, Bilal's First Born Second, Ryan Adams' Heartbreaker, Nikka Costa's Everybody Got Their Something, the Dandy Warhols' Thirteen Tales of Urban Bohemia, Talib Kweli and Hi Tek's Reflection Eternal, Jay Dee's Welcome to Detroit, Gorillaz's Gorillaz, Sigur Ros' Agaetis Byrjun and Air's 10,000 Hz Legend are the ten finalists for the first annual Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement, an American take on the U.K.'s prestigious Mercury Prize.

Nominees for the award are selected by a sixteen-person panel of writers, industry execs and musicians, including Beck, Mos Def, Trent Reznor, Macy Gray, Aimee Mann, Dave Grohl and Lucinda Williams. The albums chosen must have been released prior to July 1st 2000, and have sold fewer than 500,000 copies to date. The winner will be announced at an October 30th event in Los Angeles.

Each Listmaker submitted five recordings for consideration, which created the long list released on September 5th. The panel members then chose their ten favorite albums from the long list, with the leading ten vote-getters making the Shortlist. The winner will be announced during a party in Los Angeles on Halloween, which will feature live music, including performances by some panel members and Shortlist nominees.

The Shortlist Prize for Artistic Achievement was initiated by MCA Vice President of A&R Tom Sarig, and Greg Spotts, who runs the management and marketing company, Greg Spotts Entertainment.

ANDREW DANSBY
(October 3, 2001)