Mercury Prize 2012 Nominees Include The Maccabees, Richard Hawley

Nominees for the Barclaycard Mercury Prize have been announced, and this year's field is lacking in big names and full of relative unknowns -- especially if you live in the U.S. and aren't up to date on some of the more obscure indie acts on the other side of the pond.

The 2012 nominees for the annual award, which is given out to the best album released in the United Kingdom and Ireland in the last year, include the Maccabees' 'Given To The Wild, Richard Hawley's 'Standing at the Sky's Edge' and Plan B's 'III Manor, which many consider the front runner.

A total of a dozen albums are up for the honor, which was announced Tuesday night by radio DJ Lauren Laverne in London. High-profile snubs include Coldplay's 'Mylo Xyloto,' Florence + the Machine's 'Ceremonials' and the xx's 'Coexist,' which dropped last week. Check out the complete list of nominated albums below.

Winning the 2012 Mercury Prize would be redemption of sorts for Hawley, whose 'Coles Corner' was considered a critic's favorite in 2006 but lost out to the Arctic Monkeys' 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.' “Someone call [911], Richard Hawley’s been robbed," the Monkey's Alex Turner said of their surprise victory at the time.

The Mercury Prize will be awarded in November, and for the first time ever, all nominees will perform at a pre-ceremony concert.

2012 Mercury Prize Nominees:
Plan B – Ill Manors'
Richard Hawley – 'Standing at the Sky’s Edge'
Alt-J – 'An Awesome Wave'
Django Django – 'Django Django'
Jessie Ware – 'Devotion'
The Maccabees – 'Given to the Wild'
Michael Kiwanuka – 'Home Again'
Lianne La Havas – 'Is Your Love Big Enough?'
Ben Howard – 'Every Kingdom'
Sam Lee – 'Ground of its Own'
Field Music – 'Plumb'
Roller Trio – 'Roller Tri'