Longlist announced for Scottish Album Of The Year Award 2026
The Twilight Sad, Swim School, Boards Of Canada, Emma Pollock, Brìghde Chaimbeul and more lead this year’s nominations
The longlist for this year’s Scottish Album Of The Year Award (SAY) has been announced, in a genre-hopping list consisting of trip-hop, indie, rock, jazz, dance, Gaelic folk, electronica and more, from a diverse mix of small and arena-filling acts.
This year's selection is the result of a consultation with Scotland’s music and arts communities and 100 impartial nominators from the worlds of journalism, music retail and music venues, and was whittled down from an initial list of 303 eligible album submissions.
The longlist will become a shortlist of ten albums in a matter of weeks, with music fans set to ‘have their SAY’ and vote for which album they would like to see on the top ten via a 72-hour online public vote. The remaining nine albums will be chosen by The SAY Award judging panel, before judges then choose the winning album, exclusively announced at a special ceremony in Dundee on Thursday 5 November, with the winner receiving £20,000 prize money.
A few nominees of particular note are Fergus McReadie, a previous winner of the SAY Award; Pippa Blundell, a previous Sound Of Young Scotland nominee; and Heir Of The Cursed, the award’s first posthumous nomination to honour Heir (aka Beldina Odenyo) for her debut album.
Major acts on the longlist include Boards Of Canada for Inferno, the mercurial electronica duo’s first album since 2013; The Twilight Sad for It’s The Long Goodbye, a bracing portrait of grief and dementia from one of Robert Smith’s favourite acts; and Biffy Clyro for Futique, a stadium-ready return for the Kilmarnock celebrities.
Find the full list below:
Admiral Fallow – First Of The Birds
Andrew Wasylyk – Irreparable Parables
Barry Can’t Swim – Loner
Biffy Clyro – Futique
Boards Of Canada – Inferno
Brìghde Chaimbeul – Sunwise
Brògeal – Tuesday Paper Club
Emma Pollock – Begging The Night To Take Hold
Fergus McCreadie – The Shieling
Heir Of The Cursed – Heir Of The Cursed
Hen Hoose Collective – The Twelve
Michael McGovern – Thin White Road
Pippa Blundell – common thread
Sian – araon
Sonedo – From Here On Out
Swim School – Swim School
The Twilight Sad – It’s The Long Goodbye
Vagrant Real Estate – Neither Collar Nor Crown
Valtos – The Last Light
VLURE – Escalate
Robert Kilpatrick, CEO and creative director of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) said: ‘It’s hard to believe that 2026 marks The SAY Award’s 15th year, with over £425,000 in prize money distributed to Scottish artists to date – and soon to be more. As ever, the 20-strong longlist showcases a bold, intimate, powerful and ever-evolving recorded output from across our country – one that continues to inspire, captivate, challenge and connect.
‘Music is at the heart of our cultural identity, and each year The SAY Award Longlist gives us the opportunity to reflect on both who we are and who we’re becoming as a nation. I’m incredibly proud of the value we continue to place on music, and on the album as an artform. Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees. We look forward to celebrating their records – the soundtrack and stories of our lives – as we return to Dundee’s Caird Hall for this year’s Ceremony on Thursday 5 November.’
SAY Awards 2026 Ceremony, Caird Hall, Dundee, Thursday 5 November.