Labelled by 2005 victor Antony Hegarty as “a contest between an orange and a spaceship and a potted plant and a spoon”, and self-dubbed as “the music equivalent to the Booker Prize for literature and the Turner Prize for art”, the annual Barclaycard Mercury Prize has revealed its 2014 shortlist. And with just over a fortnight to go until the winner is unveiled by Nick Grimshaw at London’s Roundhouse, I took an afternoon to delve into the list.

Skimming through the list of the twelve nominees, it is refreshing to see the widespread absence of overhyped or established artists. Justified appearances from Bombay Bicycle Club and Damon Albarn aside, seven of the twelve nominated albums on this year’s shortlist are debut LP releases from a relatively well-rounded genre base.

Bookies favourite FKA Twigs’ LP1 is a slickly produced, ethereal mess of electronica, RnB and a haunting vocal that oozes out XX-esque lines like “when I trust you / we can do it with the lights on” whilst Kate Tempest puts the storytelling back into UK hip-hop, with each track on her concept album Everybody Down correlating with a chapter in her forthcoming novel. Once you enter into her tragic poetic world of complex urban romance, sex work and failed drug deals it is difficult to turn away.

Scottish trio Young Fathers are a throbbing vision of alternative rap and lo-fi RnB and alongside GoGo Penguin’s at times stupendous jazz electronica fusion, represent the defiant originality of this year’s shortlist. Of course, this is not always the case. Reading and Leeds headliners waiting to happen, Royal Blood too often sound like the rushed afterthought to a Black Keys record and while Nick Mulvey plants First Mind at the more experimental edges of the singer-songwriter rostrum, it is hard to muster any adjective stronger than ‘lovely’ to argue his case.

Like a really great film commercial, we’ve already heard the best bits of Jungle’s radio-friendly album in their singles and yes, they will be massive. East India Youth’s Total Strife Forever could be the dark horse; a slice of triumphant, emotive krautrock that quietly does great things.

Long since Screamadelica cleaned up at its inaugural prize in 1992, the Mercury still presents listeners an exciting blend of British music that deserves a listen.

The Barclycard Mercury Prize winner will be announced on October 29th. For the full list of nominees, click here