Choice Music Prize shortlist for Irish Album of 2009 announced

The Choice Music Prize shortlist for Irish Album of the Year 2009 has been released - few surprises, both inclusions and non-inclusions. Kind of surprised to see Laura Izibor and Swell Season, and not to see Holy Roman Army and David Kitt (in particular), but overall it is a good list, indicative of another strong year for Irish music. Let's hope 2010 is as good..

In alphabetical order, the list is:

And So I Watch You From Afar “And So I Watch You From Afar” (Small Town America)
Bell X1 “Blue Lights On The Runway” (BellyUp)
Codes “Trees Dream in Algebra” (EMI)
Adrian Crowley “Season of the Sparks” (Chemikal Underground)
Dark Room Notes “We Love You Dark Matter” (Gonzo)
The Duckworth Lewis Method “The Duckworth Lewis Method” (1969/Divine ComedyRecords)Julie Feeney “Pages” (Mittens)
Valerie Francis “Slow Dynamo” (VF)
Laura Izibor “Let The Truth Be Told” (Atlantic)
The Swell Season “Strict Joy” (Plateau)

Five of these albums appeared in On The Beat's ten best Irish albums of 2009, which you can read here.
Big fan of Mr Crowley and Ms Francis, but have a feeling that Duckworth Lewis/ASIWYFA will win.. Bell X1 would not be undeserving of the accolade either, given that Blue Lights is (we feel) their strongest offering to date.
The Choice Music Prize takes place in Vicar Street on Wednesday March 3 and tickets will be available on Ticketmaster from Monday, January 18. On The Beat will be there to bring you a report from the night, as we were last year.