Franz Ferdinand‘s ‘Always Ascending’, is among the ten releases short-listed for national music prize, The Scottish Album of The Year (SAY) Award,

The band’s fifth long-player, and the first recorded without Nick McCarthy, joins a diverse lineup which includes Mogwai, Karine Polwart ,and Golden Teacher as well as previous winners Young Fathers.

Also on the list are Out Lines, featuring 2015 prizewinner Kathryn Joseph alongside Marcus Mackay and The Twilight Sad’s James Graham.

The Shortlist for The SAY Award 2018 is as follows:

BABE – Kiss & Tell
Best Girl Athlete – Best Girl Athlete
Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending
Golden Teacher – No Luscious Life
Karine Polwart with Pippa Murphy – A Pocket of Wind Resistance
Kobi Onyame – Gold
Mogwai – Every Country’s Sun
Out Lines – Conflats
Siobhan Wilson – There Are No Saints
Young Fathers – Cocoa Sugar

Along with Franz’s public vote, the other nine shortlisted albums were chosen by a judging panel including Strawberry Switchblade’s Rose McDowall, BAFTA award-winning film maker Lynne Ramsay and curator of National Museum Scotland’s ‘Rip It Up: The Story of Scottish Pop’, Stephen Allen.

Each Shortlisted album wins won a guaranteed £1,000 prize, with the winning album (decided on the night of the ceremony on 6th September) being awarded £20,000.

Paul Thomson of Franz Ferdinand said: “This year has been a particularly good one for music coming out of Scotland and the SAY Award Longlist and Shortlist reflects that. We’re delighted to be up there with the hard hitters.”

The final award ceremony takes place on Thursday 6th September at Paisley Town Hall. More at www.sayaward.com.