Forget the Mercury Prize, the long list for the Scottish Album Of The Year looks absolutely blinding, comfortably trumping the weak dozen that comprised the competition of the supposedly more prestigious award last Autumn.

20 albums have been included in the long list for the award, organised by the Scottish Music Industry Association, and the winner of the prize will get a cool £20,000, which to be honest is more than most of them are ever going to earn in record sales these days – poor blighters. But, while they may be cash poor, there’s a creatively rich bunch in the running for the SAY Award. One of our favourites is Errors ‘Have Some Faith In Magic,’ and they said in a statement "We're really pleased to be part of the longlist. There were some great records released last year and the SAY award gives us another opportunity to celebrate all of them."

However perhaps the favourites are Django Django, who’ve just completed a successful US tour. In their statement they said "It feels great to be nominated for this award. it's really unexpected but a great surprise. We're up against some healthy competition but that's the positive thing about it because it means that the music scene in Scotland is thriving.” The biggest names on the list are either Emeli Sande or  Calvin Harris - we’d be surprised if his LP 18 Months is in the reckoning. He’ll just have to make do with the accolade of being the first ever artist to achieve eight top 10 UK singles off one album, after his song with Ellie Goulding, I Need Your Love made it to seventh spot at the weekend.

Calvin Harris
Calvin Harris is included in the Scottish Album Of The Year longlist though is unlikely to win

The full list of contenders are:

Admiral Fallow 'Tree Burst In Snow'

Auntie Flo 'Future Rhythm Machine'

Calvin Harris '18 Months'

Dam Mantle 'Brothers Fowl'

Django Django 'Django Django'

Duncan Chisholm 'Affric'

Emeli Sande 'Our Version Of Events'

Errors 'Have Some Faith In Magic'

Human Don't Be Angry 'Human Don't Be Angry'

Karine Polwart 'Traces'

Konrad Wiszniewski & Euan Stevenson 'New Focus'

Lau 'Race The Loser'

Meursault 'Something For The Weakened'

Miaoux Miaoux 'Miaoux Miaoux'

Paul Buchanan 'Paul Buchanan'

PAWS 'Cokefloat!'

RM Hubbert 'Thirteen Lost & Found'

Stanley Odd 'Reject'

The Twilight Sad 'No One Can Ever Know'

The Unwinding Hours 'Afterlives'