Britain's Greatest Album

The BRITs British Album of the Year Nominees

The BRIT Awards 2011will be held at The O2 in London on Tuesday 15th February and will be broadcast live on ITV1. What are the best albums of 2010? This article looks at the nominees for Mastercard British Album of the Year.

The album xx is the debut by the indie band The xx. The album is bizarrely included despite it being released on Young Turks in 2009 and has since received many plaudits which includes winning the 2010 Mercury Prize and has been a major factor in the album being certified as Platinum in the UK. The album was recorded at XL studios in West London between December 2008 and April 2009 and was also produced by the band themselves.

Plan B's album The Defamation of Strickland Banks was a surprising success during 2010, as Ben Drew's (Plan B) previous albums have been rather un-commercial efforts - featuring hip-hop played violently on an acoustic guitar. However, his latest effort (while still featuring the odd splatter of swear words) was largely a very successful collection of commercial blue-eyed soul songs. The concept album features lyrics about Strickland Banks, a soul singer who finds fame with bitter-sweet love songs, but loses it all when he is sent to prison for a crime he didn't commit.

Tinie Tempah's Disc-Overy album (which helped Tinie break onto the scene in 2010)  is a collection of hip-hop, grime, pop, and drum and bass songs that features a large guest list consisting of Ellie Goulding, Kelly Rowland, Labrinth, Swedish House Mafia  Emeli Sandé, Eric Turner and Range. The album also has a large production list with Labrinth, Ishi, Al Shux, Naughty Boy, Swedish House Mafia. But Tinie was responsible and roundly praised, along with Dizzee Rascal and Tinchy Stryder, for blurring the lines between grime and pop.

Take That retained their pop crown with a collection pop songs that were ready-made for radio play lists across the country and featured the return of original member Robbie Williams. Not only was this second fastest-selling album of all-time, it quickly became the biggest-selling album of the year (after 24 days after its release) with a massive one million copies sold. The album saw the band explore a more electronic style of music with synthesizers and had hip producer Stuart Price producing.

2010 was a great year for folk, or "Nu-Folk"  - as many music journalists called the movement, with Mumford and Sons, Laura Marling, Noah and the Whale etc. Mumford & Sons released this album (like The xx) in 2009 and spent 2010 riding on the back of it's success. The bands (unlike the others featured in this list) even made massive sales in the US with the band hitting the lofty No.8 in the Billboard chart. The album was produced by Markus Dravs, who produced Arcade Fire's The Suburbs (which is up for International Album at the BRITs) and The Maccabees Wall Of Arms album.

The winner (like the Mercury Prize before it) will cause a boom in sales for whichever group and album is victorious.

About the Author

Andrew Parker is the editor of Electric Banana, which features the latest album reviews and Entertainment news.

Stereo Sun (Instrumental Remake) - Lupe Fiasco/Tinchy Stryder Ft. Eric Turner