The SAY Award: 2023 Longlist announced

The Scottish Album of the Year Award returns for its 12th year, with 20 albums once again in the running for the coveted title and £20,000 cash prize. One hundred impartial nominators have whittled down 437 eligible entries to these exceptional offerings, almost half of which are newcomers to the nominees list.

In Dialogues, the solo debut by South Korean-born cellist Su-a Lee, the lifelong member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra seeks the missing link between classical and folk. Each track is a collaboration with a different artist, making an ever-shifting listening experience that’s landed Lee on the 2023 longlist. Alongside Dialogues is Soaring, another cello-led record by instrumentalist Juliette Lemoine, who’s helping keep classic sounds in the running on her first year gunning for the award, and says: “The SAY Award has been championing outstanding music across all genres in Scotland, so it’s a genuine honour to have been included in the Longlist.”

Nominators are also looking forward into cutting-edge genres like Desi-futurism, the base of Kapil Seshasayee’s second album Laal. Targeting the outdated attitudes in the Bollywood film industry, cutting-edge electronica techniques earns Seshasayee his distinction. He says about his project: “While the subject matter might deal with the Indian film industry, the themes that Laal explores, including nationalism, censorship and disability rights are no less relevant in Scotland.” Also selected are the industrial stylings of the recipient of the inaugural Sound of Young Scotland award, LVRA, whose experimental saga soft like steel raises questions of identity and bodiliness, but undoubtedly deserves a place in this pantheon.

Other newcomers include feel-good pop powerhouse Brownbear with Demons, soulful singers Brooke Combe with Black Is the New Gold and Becky Sikasa with Twelve Wooden Boxes, and Eyes of Others with his far-out eponymous debut.

Image: comfort by comfort

As for returning candidates, Glasgow-based sibling duo comfort ask the Scottish and British electorate What’s Bad Enough? The political punk rockers celebrate their first nomination since 2020. It’s the year for Glasgow's music-making siblings, with Cloth earning a spot for complex slowcore album Secret Measure. Also appearing for the first time since lockdown are Free Love, who, on Inside's nomination, say: “We tried to focus the energy of a difficult and weird time into something meaningful by holding close what we loved so it wouldn't slip through our fingers.”

Many of these masterworks are close to our heart – The Skinny awarded Hearing the Water Before Seeing The Falls by Andrew Wasylyk a five-star review and the belt for our Album of the Month last November. Nova’s Dad is the third nod for Glasgow-based rapper Bemz, who played our 200th issue party last December, and with Permanent Damage on the list, we’re proud to have been closely following the captivating career of Joesef since he was last up for The SAY Award in 2021.

Angel Numbers is a well-deserved nomination – not only because our Scottish Album of the Year 2021 was Hamish Hawk’s prior release – and Heavy Heavy by Young Fathers was a monolithic record round our bit, inciting a five-star review, an interview, and an entire magazine takeover by YFs themselves back in February. Having won The SAY Award for previous works Cocoa Sugar and Tape Two, and with shortlist inclusion for this year's Mercury Prize, Young Fathers herald a high benchmark for this year's cohort.

Other albums from SAY familiars include Even Day by Scott William Urquhart & Constant Follower, a sonic landscape on the themes of poet Norman MacCaig, fired-up punk record Burn the Empire by The Snuts, Carry Them With Us by the smallpipes master Brìghde Chaimbeul, and Last Night in the Bittersweet, the latest offering from Paisley royalty Paolo Nutini.

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The SAY Award ceremony takes place at The Albert Halls, Stirling, 26 Oct

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