Toronto – The Mercury Prize nominees for 2010 was announced today. For Canadians, it’s basically the UK’s version of the Polaris award, if the Polaris award started 18 years ago. Here is the official description of the award:
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.
Before we get to the nominees this year, lets look at some notable winners in the past:
1992 – Primal Scream – Screamdelica
1993 – Suede – Suede
1995 – Portishead – Dummy
1996 – Pulp – Different Class
2003 – Dizzee Rascal – Boy in da Corner
2004 – Franz Ferdindand – Self titled
As you can see, the Mercury Prize more often then not gets it right in terms of picking an extremely high quality record. So here are the nominees.
The Winner
The XX – XX
I’m going out on a limb here and just saying what everyone is thinking: The XX is going to win this year’s prize. The album was exceptional, cohesive and sounded different. The only real question is whether the folks in the band will smile when they are picking up the prize:
Contenders
I am often wrong about many things, so it wouldn’t surprise me to be wrong on this one. In that case, here are the other top contenders:
Dizzee Rascal – Tongue n Cheek
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
Dizzee Rascal might win the award for the second time, thanks to his transformation from grimey inner city rapper to massive party anthem king. Dance Wiv Me, Bonkers and my favorite – Holiday are exceptional club tracks and dominated dance floors around the globe. Holiday was one of the first songs the djs in Beijing played after we celebrated the new year this year. It’s a big song and the Mercury types haven’t awarded a dance record in awhile. Laura Marling has a wave of hype around her and a lot of people dig her singer songwriter abilities. She also plays nice and lends her vocals to a lot of other bands as well (The Rakes, Mystery Jets) so she might also get some votes for that. Laura was also nominated for her 2008 album Alas, I Cannot Swim. Mumford & Sons has been gathering a massive amount of support on the strength of their album – Sigh No More and their reportedly crazy live shows. However, this award is suppose to reward based entirely on album only, so who knows.
The Others
Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions
Corinne Bailey Rae -The Sea
Foals - Total Life Forever
I Am Kloot – Sky At Night
Kit Downes -Trio Golden
Paul Weller – Wake Up the Nation
Villagers – Becoming a Jackal
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
Aside from Corinne Bailey Rae (who could quite possibly win), I would say most of these bands are rather long shots. Biffy Clyro and I am Kloot have been around a really long time and it’s surprising to see them nominated for a first time. Wild Beasts and Foals have made solid debut albums, but it didn’t make as big an impression as the XX, in my opinion. Paul Weller is old and doesn’t need the money, although he could theoretically win as an apology for the M People winning over his Wild Wood album in 1994.
The overall winner of the 2010 Prize will be decided and announced at the Barclaycard Mercury Prize Awards Show, which will be broadcast live on BBC Two on Tuesday 7 September 2010. Lauren Laverne will present the programme, with the Awards Show event itself hosted by Jools Holland
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