After rifling through 401 submissions, The Scottish Album Of The Year (SAY) Award has announced its longlist featuring 20 acts from the worlds of indie rock, nu-jazz, folk, electronica, ambient, soul and trad. 

Featuring two previous SAY Award winners, one 2025 Mercury Prize nominee and 10 debut albums, the winner of this year’s SAY Award will be unveiled at a ceremony at Dundee’s Caird Hall on Thursday 6 November, the first time the city has hosted the event.

Perhaps the best-known act on the list is Mogwai, Glasgow’s veteran doom rockers, who've been nominated for their 11th studio album The Bad Fire. The band previously won a SAY in 2021 for As The Love Continues and have been shortlisted five times. Another previous winner to have made the longlist is Kathryn Joseph, who reigned supreme in 2015 for her haunting debut Bones You Have Thrown Me And Blood I've Spilled. 

Other familiar faces include corto.alto, Cloth, Hamish Hawk and Rebecca Vasmant. Notable newcomers include Faith Eliott for their mesmerising folk collection dryas, rising star and Mercury nominee Jacob Alon for In Limerence, pop up-and-comer Brook Combe for Dancing At The Edge Of The World, and jazz-soul genre melder kitti for Somethin’ In The Water. 

Here’s the longlist in full: 

Andrew Wasylyk And Tommy Perman –  Ash Grey and the Gull Glides On
Be Charlotte – Self Help And Fictional Doubts
Brooke Combe – Dancing At The Edge Of The World
Cloth – Pink Silence
Constant Follower – The Smile You Send Out Returns To You
corto.alto – 30/108
Faith Eliott – dryas
Hamish Hawk – A Firmer Hand
Jacob Alon – In Limerence
Kai Reesu – Kompromat Vol.i
Kathryn Joseph – WE WERE MADE PREY
kitti – Somethin' In The Water
Maranta – Day Long Dream
Matt Carmichael – Dancing With Embers
Mogwai – The Bad Fire
Rebecca Vasmant – Who We Are, Becoming
TAAHLIAH – Gramarye
The Joy Hotel – Ceremony
Walt Disco – The Warping
Zoe Graham – TENT

The longlist will be whittled down to a shortlist of 10 albums, one of which will be chosen by music fans via a 72-hour online public vote. The remaining nine albums will be chosen by the SAY Award judging panel, with the shortlist announced on Thursday 16 October. The winner will receive a £20,000 cash prize on the night of the ceremony, which will include performances from Brooke Combe, corto.alto, Dillon Barrie and last year’s winners Redolent. 

Robert Kilpatrick, CEO and creative director of the Scottish Music Industry Association (SMIA) said: ‘What does it mean to be alive in Scotland right now? To get a sense of that, in all its idiosyncratic glory, take a deep dive into this year’s 20-strong SAY Award longlist. 

‘In an industry increasingly driven by algorithms and metrics, each year the announcement of the longlist reaffirms the intrinsic value of the album – artistic works that soundtrack our lives, tell our stories and shape both who we are and who we can become. Records let us enter an artist’s inner world, and in doing so, often reflect something back within ourselves – sometimes even things we never knew were there. To me, it’s that intimate dance and unique connection that gives them their magic.

‘With 401 eligible submissions this year, today’s announcement is about celebrating the 20 outstanding Scottish albums that are now in the running for the coveted title of Scottish Album of the Year, as well as the £20,000 first prize. We implore you to listen to them, and through doing so, maybe you'll find something more than a few new favourites.

‘On behalf of the SMIA, I’d like to say a massive congratulations to each of this year’s nominees. We look forward to celebrating them – and the strength and diversity of Scottish music – at The SAY Award Ceremony on Thursday 6 November at Dundee’s Caird Hall. I hope you can join us.’

SAY Award ceremony, Caird Hall, Dundee, Thursday 6 November.