Over the last twelve moths, thousands of albums have been released. The majority of them are crap, but still somehow seem to get airplay and a clump of fans.
The Mercury Music prize, however, aims to honour the best British album released over the last year – the one crafted so well that John Lennon is itching in his coffin to try and claim credit for it.
This prize isn’t like your typical Smash Hits or Brit nomination. It challenges your perception of music and doesn’t necessarily nominate the most popular bands. From dubstep to electronics, there is something that will hopefully please the music fan who looks a little deeper then the same ten bands featured in Q magazine. Hold on tight as we go in for a deeper look at this year’s nominations, with the rest to come tomorrow.
Adele – 19 – Oh God yeah! This is Adele – the girl who looks like she probably could knock you out after a few drinks and a packet of chips. She doesn’t look like the ideal singer, but battling against the anorexic pretty girl singer has won her respect and a lot of fans. Will she win? Probably not against more experimental artists.
British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music? – These guys are nuts live. Not only do they have strange polar bears and other creatures on stage with them, but they jump around and quite often break themselves for our amusement. A zany band who want to have fun and don’t care what people write about them. We love them.
Burial – Untrue – This is who should win this year’s prize. Though with hecklerspray‘s backing, he probably won’t. An anonymous musician, little is known about him apart from the fact his LP brought dubstep to the masses and created a wave of interest in a scene that was previously underground.
Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid – Putting it bluntly, Elbow fucking rock. The lyrics are sly, dirty and take ages to figure out. There are no basic straightforward pop songs, but the way they are crafted means that anyone can listen. If Burial doesn’t win, then Elbow deserves it.
Estelle – Shine – The populist entry to get people who don’t care much about music interested. She wouldn’t win an award for her wonky dancing, and she won’t win for her album. The collaboration with sample king Kanye West was OK, but irritating and worse than the groin strain after a while.
Laura Marling – Alas, I Cannot Swim – One of this year’s ‘who is this?’ entry. An enchanting and gorgeous record full of personal and beautiful tracks. Another deserving winner but hasn’t quite got the killer hook. Still, she is an artist who can only benefit from being nominated through this award. She rocks a lot more than us.
Tomorrow is doomsday for all of the Mercury nominated artists, including Radiohead one of the blokes who used to be in Led Zeppelin.