APRA has released their Top 20 Silver Scroll nominees

The APRA's Silver Scroll award nominee list is the one Top 20 that all New Zealand's songwriters want to be on. Today they have released their full nominee list for the prestigious award.

Unlike our other music awards, the Scrolls focuses wholly on the craft of songwriting. Commercial success does not necessarily guarantee a place on the list if the songwriting isn't considered up to par.

A judging panel of 12 musicians whittled down over 200 entries to reach the Top 20. And, it has to be said, they've done a bang-up job. The song selection crosses many different genres and styles and would make for one helluva great Kiwi 2017 playlist.

So who made the cut?

It will surprise no one to see Lorde leading the way with two nominations for her songs Liability and Green Light. What is a pleasing surprise is the nom for Waipu's teenage thrash metal band Alien Weaponry and their hard-hitting, brutal riffing Maori language snarler Urutaa.

Shayne P Carter reps the old guard with his moody piano driven I Know Not Where I Stand, while Fazerdaze reps the new kids with her bright cherry Lucky Girl.

Lawrence Arabia makes his regularly scheduled appearance with O Heathcote, while newcomer Teeks debuts his old school R&B flavour with If Only.

Only a damned fool would rule out the chances of Chelsea Jade's intimate beat-pop number Life of the Party or Onehunga hip-hop crew SWIDT's party-starting Little Did She Know.

The retro cool of Bic Runga's Close Your Eyes has to be considered a favourite, as does the dark folk of Nadia Reid's sophisticated Richard and the jittery groove of Hate Somebody by local post-punk heroes Cut Off Your Hands.

Every line-up needs its wildcards and here you're looking at Kings' breezy Don't Worry 'Bout It and Aldous Harding's challenging Horizon.

No matter how you look at it the 10,000 APRA members who will all be voting really have their work cut out for them.

The winner of the hotly contested award will be announced at an event at the Dunedin Town Hall on Thursday, September 28.

The rest of the nominees are below:

Cold Steel, by Mara TK and Troy Kingi
Hundred Waters, by Grayson Gilmour
One and Only, by French For Rabbits
Rainbow, by Louis Baker
Sober, by Lydia Cole
Sunday Best, by Seth Haapu