Song of the Day - Edwyn Collins

The Longlist for the Scottish Album of the Year Award got announced yesterday. Susan Omand has already picked her winner...



I took a look at the longlist for the SAY, as I do every year, (you can find the list HERE for yourselves) with a view to doing my usual "here's who's on it and this is what I think" article. For those of you that don't know the awards, they have been presented since 2012 to the Best album by a Scottish artist or band that has been released in the previous 12 months - regardless of label, sales numbers or genre. Yes, that's right. Genre doesn't matter for this award, so you get traditional folk music going up against pop and rock albums vying with jazz.



Of all the eligible albums for the year (that's 293 albums this year), a group of 100 "nominators" - made up from people in the industry from all over Scotland, like radio presenters from Stornoway, music journalists from Glasgow, venue owners in Wick, event promoters in Dumfries and even the local record shop owner in Shetland [quite why we're not on the list I don't know - Ed] - pick the long list. This will get whittled down to a short list of 10 by both judges and a public vote, with the final winner chosen by judges in September.



I will admit there are some great bands on there, so special mention is needed for the likes of Aidan O'Rourke, who wrote a song every day for a year as a creative project,  CHVRCHES, whose nominated album was their third in a row to go Top 10, and Graham Costello's STRATA, whose post-punk jazz style is highly innovative and whose album was self-released this year.



But the intro to this article said I've already picked my winner and it's true. Well, the glorious Edwyn Collins' utterly wonderful new album Badbea is on the list, so really how could I pick anyone else?



[You can also read Tony's review of the Edwyn Collins documentary on our twin site at The DreamCage HERE - Ed]







Image - SAY Award Twitter







The full long-list looks like this:

Aidan Moffat and RM Hubbert – Here Lies The Body
Aidan O'Rourke – 365: Vol. 1
Andrew Wasylyk – The Paralian
Auntie Flo – Radio Highlife
Brighde Chaimbeul – The Reeling
C Duncan – Health
Carla J. Easton – Impossible Stuff
CHVRCHES – Love Is Dead
Edwyn Collins – Badbea
Fatherson – Sum Of All Your Parts
Fergus McCreadie - Pianist – Turas
Free Love – Luxury Hits
Graham Costello's STRATA – Obelisk
Karine Polwart with Steven Polwart and Inge Thomson – Laws of Motion
Kathryn Joseph – From When I Wake The Want Is
Kinnaris Quintet – Free One
mastersystem band – Dance Music
Niteworks – Air Fàir an Là
Sean Shibe, Classical Guitarist – softLOUD
The Twilight Sad (Official) – It Won/T be Like This All the Time