Fresh off last year’s coronation of the Klaxons as the best band in Britain, this year’s Mercury Prize nominations feature quite a range of popular music, from summer jam tournament runner-up Estelle to a few acts that will send you scurrying to Google.
Here is the shortlist:
Adele – 19
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial – Untrue
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle – Shine
Laura Marling – Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon – Stainless Style
Portico Quartet – Knee-Deep in the North Sea
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset – The Bairns
Radiohead – In Rainbows
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss – Raising Sand
The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement
Radiohead is the likely favorite, especially considering the idea of giving an award to Elbow or British Sea Power instead is too difficult to imagine. However, the Mercury Prize does throw its share of curveballs; the Klaxons beating Amy Winehouse last year, Antony & the Johnsons beating out Coldplay, Bloc Party and M.I.A. in 2005. If nothing else, looking through shortlists of the past is an amusing flashback to my poorly chosen music purchases of previous years. MJ Cole! Gemma Hayes! Artists for War Child! What do these artists have in common? Their CDs are all stored in my garage. Forget the prize, who from this year’s nominees will join that prestigious group?
when i think that i’m over you*, i’m overpowered
*where you = “the appalling lack of meaningless awards and plaudits for Roisin Murphy”
Also: no Hot Chip, Goldfrapp? I BLAME EMI
Radiohead is the likely favorite, especially considering the idea of giving an award to Elbow or British Sea Power instead is too difficult to imagine…
This is Radiohead’s third short list (and Thom Yorke made the short list once as a solo artist!), and they’ve never won this award, so maybe this is their year.
But I would not write off Raising Sand so quickly. Mark my words — this record will collect a ton of hardware over the next 6-ish months.
I don’t understand why anyone likes The Last Shadow Puppets. It’s overly slow and ponderous Arctic Monkeys with strings instead of guitars. Which makes it bad. Really, really bad.
I thought the British Sea Power record was disappointing and the Last Shadow Puppets one surprisingly good. The Neon Neon CD might be the single most uneven record I own. And I haven’t heard any of the others… But how funny is Unthank for a last name?
i’d love to see burial get the award, just to see how the award would be accepted (or not)
@SomeSound-MostlyFury: It’s always just good enough to not skip when a song comes up, but the album is better than Nembutol. I definitely give this collab my vote for “album that you never listen to, but still have and think ‘Why don’t I ever listen to this?’ when you come across it then you play it and you go ‘Oh, yeah’ and put it back in storage until the next time you run across it and think ‘Why don’t I ever listen to this?’”
@Halfwit: Isn’t it crazy how Shuffle has changed listening habits? I now hold on to tons of albums that I don’t like all that much because I don’t mind hearing one song at a time when it pops up randomly.
@SomeSound-MostlyFury: It’s kinda ironic that, with everyone claiming to reject the radio because they can play exactly what they want when they want it, so much of our listening based on the idea that, although you may not actually enjoy this song, it’s enough like the songs that you do enjoy that you can tolerate it until a song that you actually enjoy comes in.
We’ve created as hit-or-miss an experience as most genre-based radio stations, just one that’s based on more personalized “genre”.
The fuck’s a Portico Quartet? Can we stop naming bands after things you find at Pier 1 Imports, please?
Burial, coz izza London fing innit?
Seriously, the only thing that would make the Mercury Prize worthwhile is if Burial won, and like Thomas Pynchon did for his National Book Award, sent Professor Irwin Corey to accept the award. The good professor is still alive and rocking the string tie and Chuck Taylors.
burial is banksy.
The Mercury Music Prize is always pretty wacky. I was glad to see Klaxons win last year, but I’ll never forgive them for picking M People’s Elegant Slumming over Blur’s Parklife in 1994. I mean come on! M People?
I’ve always thought that my cat is Burial, ever since I found those tiny headphones… So if he wins I’ll make him available to pick up the award money.
It’s Burial’s prize, betcha.
Oh, Gemma Hayes… “Night On My Side” is such a great album. It’s a shame that she never took off her — definitely better than KT Tunstall, Dido or that barfy Duffy.
I’m a fan of the new Elbow record, but my money is on Plant & Krauss.
the Laura Marling record is really quite stunning…she’s only 18!