Tonight, returning to Paisley Town Hall again, the Scottish Music Industry Association in association with Creative Scotland will award this year’s Scottish Album of the Year, the seventh award in the competitions history. Among a gathering of the country’s music elite, one artist and album from a shortlisted ten will be chosen as an overall winner and walk away with, not only a pretty decent cash prize, but also a sense of pride in achievement not often granted to artists in this country away from direct contact with their fans.

Wherever your opinions sit with competitions like this, it has to be said that even with two less albums than its wider known UK competition equivalent in the Mercury Prize, the SAY Award shortlist has a far wider diversity and has historically been braver in handing the winning prize to less mainstream works. Scroll down the blog for playlists from previous years.

I made my call with this year’s selection a long time ago (*cough* Golden Teacher) but if you’re still pondering, here’s Tracksuite’s selection from the shortlist.