Toronto – Just a few weeks after the Polaris shortlist were announced, the folks at “barclaycard” announced the contenders for the Mercury Prize. What is the Mercury Prize, you ask?
“The Barclaycard Mercury Prize for ‘Albums of the Year’ is open to all genres of music from the UK and Ireland. It is judged solely through consideration of the music on the albums – it does not have categories, nor does it take into account sales, media exposure or live performances. ”
Here are some previous winners
2008 – Elbow took home the award with their album Seldom Seen Kid, or as I like to call it “Seldom listened to album” haha. No, I kinda wanted British Sea Power to win, but whatevs.
2007 – Klaxons took the album home with Myths of the Near Future, over Bat for Lashes, Dizzee Rascal, Amy Winehouse and Arctic Monkeys. I really enjoyed that album, so I can agree with this one.
Mostly, the Mercury Prize has been on a ball, except for a few exceptions.. lets take a look:
1999 – Talvin Singh won. WHO? I don’t know! This was a bit of a shocker at the time, as he took the win over Blur, Manic Street Preacher, Beth Orton, Chemical Brothers AND Faithless.
1997 – Roni Size over Radiohead’s Ok Computer and Chemical Brothers Dig Your Own Hole. If you had an Oscar equivalent, this is like Uwe Boll’s Postal winning over the Shawshank Redemption or something.
Overall, I guess it could be a mix bag, but lets look at the contenders.
The Heavy Weights
Bat for Lashes -Two Suns
Glasvegas – Glasvegas
Florence & The Machine – Lungs
These three albums are easily the top 3 contenders for the award, Bat For Lashes has garnered acclaim worldwide and really put out a fantastic album. Glasvegas blend of honest Scot music will appeals to the lads out there and Florence & the Machines are benefiting from a late release, Florence’s ferocious voice and a ever growing fan base.
Might Sneak In
La Roux – La Roux
The Horrors- Primary Colours
La Roux’s chart topping success, unique personality and original take on 80s music redux might be enough to sway some voters to vote her way after last years Elbow album, which brought as much life to a party as a Michael Jackson joke does these days. The Horrors underrated Primary Colours brought people back to the sonic guitar sounding days of the late 80s/early 90s, but it mostly went under most peoples radars, as they were probably expecting “Sheena is a Parasite” part 2
Will not win because the Klaxons won in 2007
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Will not win because new album still not better then debut album
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
As great as the new album is, it’s still not good as the self title debut. If that one doesn’t win, why should this one?
Will Not win because nobody knows who these guys are
Led Bib- Sensible Shoes
Lisa Hannigan – Sea Sew
Speech Debelle- Speech Therapy
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men
The Invisible – The Invisible
By nobody, I mean, me. I half expect Josh of our little sister blog IDVDK to comment with some link to a post he made seven months ago about one of these bands. Personally, I have never really heard about these guys, so I don’t expect them to win.
Exceptions!
The only real exception I can find is Patrick Wolf‘s The Bachelor. You can also make an argument for Jarvis Cocker and Manic Street Preachers latest efforts, but that’s about it I guess.
For those with satellites or live in England:
“The winner of this year’s Barclaycard Mercury Prize will be announced live on BBC Two on Tuesday 8 September 2009 as part of the BBC’s coverage of the Awards Show. A second programme on BBC Two will be broadcast on Friday 11 September. The programmes will be presented by Lauren Laverne, with the Awards Show itself hosted by Jools Holland.”
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