Neptune Prize - Last Chance To Vote

Each year, to celebrate the ridiculous wealth of albums coming out of the UK & Ireland, Drowned in Sound creates an alternative to the Mercury Music Prize. It’s more of a companion than competition to the music industry established, fancy dinner, awards show malarkey and the key thing is that it has no entry fee and the winner is picked by you, the fans.

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In previous years the Neptune Music Prize has celebrated artists ranging from Self Esteem to last year’s winner which was an ambient album by a little known artist called Mining.

This year’s voting closes on Wednesday 15th October 2025 at noon and here’s a reminder of who’s on the list, with Emma Wilkes and I giving you a little taste of each record. Hope you find a new favourite from this pile of exceptional records.

The Neptune Music Prize 2025: Shortlist

Benefits - Constant Noise

Emma: Ever listened to an audiobook in the club? Benefits’ second album evokes that very feeling at times, but the dissonance between Kingsley Hall’s gently intonated spoken word and the blare of colourful dance beats makes for one of the most compelling and unique state-of-the-nation addresses you’ll hear this year. His portraits of permacrisis Britain are so sharp the relatability can be felt in your bones, from the foul trench between the North and Westminster on ‘Land Of The Tyrants’ to fruitless algorithm-fueled rage on the title track, beginning with the priceless line “I’m looking up in awe at a mountain of shit.” It’s brilliant protest music, but not as you know it.

The Cure - Songs of a Lost World

Sean: Already named Drowned in Sound’s favourite album of 2024, this Halloween released masterpiece sees goth's greatest band doing what they do best, casting a long shadow, with glimpses of a transcendental light. Whilst it was a baffling oversight of the Mercury Prize to leave this melancholy marinade on the shelf, we’re thrilled that it meant it was eligible for our alternative prize, especially as so much of this list of DiS favourites aren't as globally known share similar shadowlands.

Cwfen - Sorrows

Emma: Shoegaze, doom and goth coalesce into what can only be black magic across Cwfen’s debut album. As darkly enchanting as it sounds on the surface, they’ve fished into a well of bigger, deeper ideas which gives their sorcerous output extra dimensions. Profoundly anti-fascist, they weave a queer love story through the smoky balladry of Embers, while the pounding Rite’s howled verses is punctured by a gauzy chorus calling for the legalisation of assisted dying. It’s a truly haunting record, one which once again calls into question why the other prize looks the other way when it comes to the wealth of incredible metal from this country.

Richard Dawson - End of the Middle

Sean: The cult songsmith strips everything back with this record to reveal his most intimate and devastating work yet. Inspired by Japanese director Yasujirō Ozu's domestic dramas and written in his allotment shed overlooking the Tyne valley, this record zooms in on the mundane magnificence of multi-generational family life. It's kitchen sink realism peppered with references to Blossom Hill wine, Good Morning Britain, and B&Q, but also alien visitations and the afterlife. With just voice, guitar, and the occasional saxophone or clarinet, Dawson reveals the deep strangeness lurking in normality.

Djrum - Under Tangled Silence

Sean: The gorgeous skittering pianos that open this record give way to a gently glitchy squelch of bloops and wintery beats. Djrum, which I’m reliably informed you pronounce drum, is the opposite of a challenging listen, as absolutely everything about this record is immaculately constructed. With glimpses of Rounds-era Four Tet and sharing a hinterland with Aphex Twin’s ambient works, this record is a comforting swarm that slowly ramps up the BPM. It’s a record that truly deserves to be listened to on the best headphones or stereo you can find to allow your brain to fully soak it in.

Gwenno - Utopia

Sean: Few artists have a career quite like Gwenno’s. From being one third of the MySpace generations Shangri-Las to carving out a new chapter with records celebrating the Cornish and Welsh languages, she’s built a proper cult following. On this record, she revisits her showgirl era in Vegas with this heart-melting collection of dreamy bops that thrum and sway in all the best ways.

Heartworms - Glutton for Punishment

Sean: Much-like Interpol, something about Heartworms feels as if she’s part of The Cure’s extended universe. Perhaps it’s the languishing guitars and the whispers. Maybe it’s the way the songs swoop and soar, elegant and elongated, dark, misty, joyously menacing with a lingering intensity. The world Jojo builds with her songs is rich with sensory sonic textures as the fuzz of synths and glocks occasionally dart in and out of the rolling waves of drums and low hum basslines. This is one of the most spectacular debut albums for quite some time from a truly special new British artist.

Honesty - U R HERE

Sean: With a feeling of Bloc Party but a sound that straddles slinky alt-pop, Streets-y lad-pop nostalgic yearning, and Burial-y 4am on a night bus vibery, U R HERE has the inertia modern Britain coarsing through its pulsing limbs. Fun fact: This isn’t the first time George Mitchell has featured on this list as his previous band Eagulls was an early Neptune nominee back in the day.

Jessica Winter - My First Album

Emma: Jessica Winter creates pop for quirky people. Maximalist and larger-than-life without ever feeling artificial or blown out, the Portsmouth-via-London artist’s debut album rejoices in its flirtation with genre after genre, from the stylish, musical theatre-inflected ‘Big Star’ to the zany turn-of-the-century funk-pop of ‘Feels Good (For Tonight)’. It’s the work of someone who’s clearly explored music’s every labyrinth, and all the fun she’s had in doing so she’s packaged anew, passing it on gleefully to a legion of new fans.

Julia-Sophie - forgive too slow ⁠

Sean: Few records have the widescreen wonder of a big cloudless sky but also the chill of being caught atop a mountain as the sun goes down. Which is to say, this record is euphoric and bright and also special in ways that inner world dance bangers tend to be. This isn’t a record for big clubs, it’s for the solitude in forests or your sun-drenched bedroom. It’s a record that’s little woozy but feels like a big hug.

KATHRYN JOSEPH - WE WERE MADE PREY.

Sean: Don’t be fooled by the all caps, a record that shouts, this is not. It is a far more expansive world and a bit louder than Joseph’s piano-y Newsome-y past but the haunting, hurting, raw, and bewitching splendour is all the more special for it. It’s almost as if the Scottish songsmith is in the eye of a far more intense storm than the records that have come before and her defiance to lean into the wind, as everything around her blows away, is devastating - and incredibly awe-inspiring - to witness.

⁠Kelly Lee Owens - Dreamstate ⁠

Sean: It’s hard to avoid discussing celestial forces and transcendent dance music when discussing KLO’s work. Long term fans know what they’re in for but Dreamstate has a different energy. It’s punchier but still has the intimacy of a party taking place inside of your chest. It’s also got some of the lushest moments the Welsh producer has released to date.

Lambrini Girls - Who Let The Dogs Out

Emma: Who said raging against the machine had to be so serious? It wasn’t Lambrini Girls, whose riotous debut album arrived in January like a Molotov cocktail filled with confetti. Between letting loose over institutional police corruption (‘Bad Apple’), nepotism (Filthy Rich Nepo Babies’ and gentrification (‘You’re Not From Round Here’), they channeled their party spirits into some truly joyful moments. ‘Special, Different’ was a proud raising of the flag for the neurodivergent community, while ‘Cuntology 101’ was a beautifully profane celebration of self. And, of course, the Brighton duo had a sack full of big, noisy riffs to go with it.

Los Campesinos! - All Hell

Emma: The return of Los Campesinos! after seven years felt like a balm in a gloomy climate. With a warmth to them that feels like wearing a soft cardigan again as soon as the cold hits, Britain’s self-described “first and only emo band” double down on their reputation, albeit with the grace that comes with two decades as an outfit. In some ways, this is like flipping through a photo album capturing the best parts of being emo in the 2000s, but with a wizened sensibility to their usual melancholic stylings. It’s probably also the best album you’ll hear with a line about Berocca in it.

Lowen - Do Not Go To War With The Demons Of Manzandaran

Emma: This is an album to make jaws drop. With the atmosphere and darkness of doom metal and the thunderous energy of prog, entwined with the sounds of the Middle East, Lowen are beautifully defiant on their fantastical second album. Intricate and detailed but with a blazing fire beneath them, the quartet’s collective power is an awe-inspiring thing to behold, particularly with the regal might of frontperson Nina Saeidi’s vocals. It’s both a showcase of strength and a celebration of national identity, transforming metal into something that is truly theirs.

⁠⁠Little Simz - Lotus ⁠

Sean: After taking out legal action against her longtime producer and childhood friend Inflo for huge unpaid loans, there’s a glimmer of revenge amongst these lotus leaves. The exceptional record spans punk, samba, soul, jazz, cheeky pop, and Afrobeat, with Miles Clinton James surrounding Simz’s voice with unfussy arrangements. The title track, featuring Michael Kiwanuka and Yussef Dayes, is the album’s extraordinary centerpiece with Simz digging deep over a timeless groove. It’s not like Simz’s mantelpiece needs any more awards but this album sure deserves all the gongs it gets.

Nubya Garcia - Odyssey

Sean: Of all the records overlooked for this year’s Mercury Prize, it’s shocking that this didn’t make the list. It’s the exact kind of record I (as someone who’s not in the scene) rely on the jazz experts on the judging panel to surface for me but for some reason this absolutely stunning adventure in sound didn't feature on the other list. Saxophonist Nubya Garcia was inspired by time spent gawping at Brazilian sunrises and R&B interludes, which has led to a record with a rich sky of strings, horns, keys and whole lotta soul-nurturing, shoulder-rattling, brain soothing splendour that truly lives up to the record's title.

⁠Overhead, The Albatross - I Leave You This

Emma: Overhead, the Albatross rip the notion of (mostly) instrumental post-rock being dull or pretentious to shreds. Triumphantly resurfacing for their first album in eight years, the outpouring of grief across the record is beautifully realised, but in surprising, not to mention dynamic ways. Emotionally, they’ve been shattered, but brittle they are not, as the dramatic churning of ‘Hibakusha’ and the oceanic, synth-spliced ‘Your Last Breath’ would attest. It stretches boundaries in a gorgeous manner, and in a surprisingly accessible one too.

Rose Gray - Louder Please

Emma: When it comes to warehouse raving, Rose Gray is a lifer. All those hours surrounded by booming dance music and the heat of bodies have been distilled into her debut album, yet she’s clearly very schooled in pop. ‘Kiss the Sky’ is the sound of a sunsoaked daydream, while ‘Party People’ pulses with fizzing synths and delicate, softly-sung melodies and ‘Switch’ descends into a glitchy breakdown. Though it dropped in January, it had the sort of sound that demanded that the clock be wound forward to summer immediately.

Whatever The Weather - Whatever The Weather II

Sean: North London producer Loraine James has released two Hyperdub albums under her own name, hosts a monthly NTS show, and has sublime ambient alias Whatever The Weather. The album’s minimalist improvised sound is the sort of deep listening record that rewards with every listen. James favours hardware over software for this record, with her selection of synths modulated and transformed through an array of pedals with few or no overdubs, effectively anchoring each arrangement to its precise moment of creation. The record ebbs and fades and builds and pulses, and it’s a joy.

Once you've picked your three favourites, head over here to vote:

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