Mercury Music Prize Betting Odds: Thom Yorke, The Eraser

Every day that tick-tocks by is another day closer to the time that we find out who has won the Mercury Music Prize 2006 - where the best British album of the last 12 months is revealed.

So far in our Mercury Music Prize rundown we've looked at a barmy old folk album and an annoying jazz album, but today we can look at an album by someone who might actually win the Mercury Music Prize. Perhaps. There's a chance he might might be too much of an obvious choice for the Mercury Music Prize panel. Or maybe that's what they want us to think. Oh, those contrary Mercury Music Prize gits, they won't be happy until they've second-guessed us to death.

Here are the Mercury Music Prize betting odds for The Eraser by Thom Yorke…

Thom Yorke: The Eraser - On paper, you'd think that The Eraser by Thom Yorke would be a frontrunner for the Mercury Music Prize. It's got it all - The Eraser is an experimental set by the angsty, intelligent, wonky-eyed singer with one of the world's biggest bands, meaning that the Mercury Music Prize panel's instinctive disdain of anyone who's sold more than ten records is countered by the fact that it's a bit clever-clever and hardly anyone has bought it. However, there's one major thing stopping The Eraser by Thom Yorke being voted as the Mercury Music Prize album of the year - it's not very good. Whatever the first single from the album was, it sounded like a bad Aphex Twin copyist doing what sounds freakishly like an Alanis Morissette impression, and the rest of the album isn't much better either. Is it good? Compared to Radiohead, no. Compared to most other vaguely alternative bands, no. Compared to The Cheeky Girls, it's a close-run thing. Will it win the Mercury Music Prize? Never doubt the Mercury Music Prize panel's intense hatred of doing exactly the opposite of what you'd expect. This contrariness has more or less killed off any chance of Thom Yorke winning. Not that he'll mind, though, the wonk-eyed fool. Current Mercury Music Prize betting odds - 20/1

Buy The Eraser by Thom Yorke at Amazon

Tomorrow: the Mercury Music Prize betting odds for The Back Room by Editors

[story by Stuart Heritage]