ARTISTS have given their predictions ahead of the Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) longlist announcement.

Scotland’s music industry will come together on Friday, July 26 at The Queen’s Hall in Edinburgh and 20 Scottish albums will compete for the coveted prize of £20,000.

Ahead of the reveal at the Live at the Longlist event, SAY Award alumni including previous winner Kathryn Joseph, Mogwai, and Honeyblood share their personal accounts of their favourite Scottish albums from the past year.

Mogwai guitarist Stuart Braithwaite said: “The record that I’d love to see on The SAY Longlist is Throne by Heather Leigh. She’s a fantastic experimental musician and it’d be great for her music to reach as many people as possible.”

Previous SAY Award winner Kathryn Joseph added: “All my parts are crossed that The Twilight Sad get the win they deserve. It Won/t Be Like This All the Time is a perfect and beautiful record and they are the best of all humans.”

Stina Tweeddale from Glasgow’s Honeyblood also supported the Twilight Sad album to make the list saying: “The Twilight Sad’s It Won/t Be Like This All the Time is an exceptional album that cements the band as a pillar of Scottish music. It really blew me away. It brings them to a new dimension of bigger and better without destroying the central elements of their unique sound. Carla J. Easton’s Impossible Stuff sees Carla step into her own with this record and push through into a more vulnerable place with her songwriting while still holding on to her pop sensibilities. I absolutely love it.”

This year saw a record total of 293 eligible albums submitted. The submissions have been whittled down to 20 albums by 100 impartial ‘nominators’ chosen from a range of musical backgrounds.