Australian Music Prize 2024: Nick Cave and Amyl and the Sniffers nominated
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(Credits: YouTube / Nick Cave)
Australian legends Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds have been shortlisted for the 20th Australian Music Prize for their most recent album, Wild God.
Cave, who first made his name with the cult Australian post-punk band The Birthday Party, before going solo and continuing to succeed in a more refined art-rock realm, has been nominated on a handful of occasions in the past. The musician was first nominated for 2019’s Ghosteen, which lost out to Sampa the Great’s The Return, and he and Warren Ellis’s 2021 album, Carnage, was also nominated. That record was beaten by Genesis Owusu’s Smiling with No Teeth.
2024 marks the 20th year of the Australian Music Prize. The UK’s Mercury Prize inspired the ceremony, and both awards aim to celebrate music of artistic value, regardless of genre and commercial popularity. The nine shortlisted records were picked from a list of 46 nominations, which were, in turn, selected from a pool of 600 Australian albums released between October 28th, 2023, and October 25th, 2024.
Wild God is nominated alongside Amyl and the Sniffers‘ Cartoon Darkness, Audrey Powne’s From The Fire, Dobby’s Warrangu; River Story, Grace Cummings’ Ramona, Hiatus Kaiyote’s, Love Heart Cheat Code, Kankawa Nagarra’s Wirlmarni Rowena Wise’s Senseless Acts Of Beauty and The Dirty Three’s Love Changes Everything.
Following the news of being shortlisted, Cave said in a statement: “Thank you to everyone for their support. It means a great deal to us to be recognised by AMP.”
Amyl and The Sniffers guitarist Declan Mehrtens said the band are “grateful” to make it through to the shortlist. He said: “Australian music is dear to our hearts, and we are incredibly proud to be able to create and perform the music we make.”
The full list of Australian Music Prize nominations:
In a three-and-a-half-star review of Cave’s Wild God in August, Far Out wrote: “All told, the record is largely a unique and powerful triumph. It boldly reaches for the heavens and often grabs the odd walloping fistful. However, to be entirely truthful, if in two years time the mood for a bit of Nick Cave hits his longstanding fans, the vast majority of people may well bypass Wild God in favour of Push the Sky Away, or have a good cry with Ghosteen instead.”
Elsewhere, Amyl and the Sniffers’ Cartoon Darkness took home Far Out’s ‘Album of the Week’ in October. In a four-and-a-half-star review, Far Out applauded: “Even if you ignored all the messages in the lyrics, Cartoon Darkness would still be an incredible album. The band are feeling their way around so many different textures and references, from classic punk power to more refined rock and roll riffs and all the various subgenres and sounds in between.”
The winner will be announced on December 4th at the Soundmerch AMP event, which will be held at the APRA AMCOS offices in Sydney. It is presented via a partnership with Soundmerch and is supported by the Australian Government through the body Music Australia.
- Audrey Powne – From The Fire
- Amyl & The Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness
- Dobby – Warrangu; River Story
- Grace Cummings – Ramona
- Hiatus Kaiyote – Love Heart Cheat Code
- Kankawa Nagarra – Wirlmarni
- Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – Wild God
- Rowena Wise – Senseless Acts Of Beauty
- The Dirty Three – Love Changes Everything
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