mercury music prize: 2007

shortlist announced i should say.

let's see if we can rise above and pay it no heed this year, ok?

No better way to ignore something then by posting in a thread about it.

# mercury music prize: 2007
# i haven't heard the follow blog dance acts:
# r.i.p kelly johnson (girlschool)

i just staggered out of a nap to the computer screen, saw these three topping new answers, and in my addled daze was convinced at least one of the threads was about...

prinzhorn dance school

...think of it as an omen.

anyway, i'm going to make the same nomination i predicted 11 months ago: the electric soft parade

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/42073000/jpg/_42073948_protester_afp.jpg

who is Candie Payne? i am shocked to find that The Cribs would qualify.

my initial prediction was Patrick Wolf as Mika would be playing it TOO safe which they did last year. Klaxons look like the only other likelihood right now. lean times, slim pickings. but it's always a debut artist so why do they still bother nominating non-debuts?

Candie Payne, adult oriented pop-rock music a slightly better Texas with more of a soul singer vibe, been hyped by certain sections of the media. Been on Jools Holland Later show.

http://www.myspace.com/candiepayne

Does Mika hold a British or Irish passport? He was born in Lebanon, which surely rules him out.

DJ Martian, advocate of Matty Taylor, darkwave, and the cricket bat test.

I'm sticking with my original prediction of New Young Pony Club

New Young Pony Club, Maps, Fion Reagan , Arctic Monkeys, Young Knives, Jamie T, Bat For Lashes, Klaxons, The View, Amy Winehouse, Baskiat Strings and Dizee Rascal???????????????

Basquiat Strings. Sorry. C&P'd from someone else.

wait, that's real???

Not sure.

is the Bat For Lashes any good? i like the single

http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y161/MarkGrout/bucketnew.jpg

You know it!

I like the Bat For Lashes.

Bat for Lashes suck so bad. At least when the Americans do bullshit freakfolk we can pass it off as, y'know, "lol americans"

i approve of bat for lashes out of loyalty to my 15-yr-old self, who would have considered a trip-hop tori amos the very pinnacle of music, but...no, she's not actually good. at all.

though she's a zillion times better than american freakfolk, christ, fucking cocorosie/banhart/aargh

Mercury Music Prize 2007
Nominees have been announced:

* Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare
* Basquiat Strings featuring Seb Rochford's Basquiat Strings
* Bat for Lashes' Fur & Gold
* Dizzee Rascal's Maths & English
* Jamie T's Panic Prevention
* Klaxons' Myths of the Near Future
* Maps' We Can Create
* New Young Pony Club's Fantastic Playroom
* Fionn Regan's The End of History
* The View's Hats Off to the Buskers
* Amy Winehouse's Back to Black
* The Young Knives' Voices of Animals and Men

General reaction appears to be "Predictable" and "Surely Arctic Monkeys can't win again!?"

I think the dastardly Arctic Monkeys can.

Odds from William Hill:

Arctic Monkeys 4/1
Amy Winehouse 4/1
The View 8/1
Klaxons 8/1
Jamie T 8/1
Dizzee Rascal 8/1
The Young Knives 10/1
Fionn Regan 10/1
Bat For Lashes 10/1
New Young Pony Club 12/1
Maps 12/1
Basquiat Strings 12/1

via: http://www.thedailypunt.com/forum/special-betting-markets/104071-mercury-music-prize-2007-a.html

Let's not dignify this with a 200 post thread, please?

Klaxons seem most likely, but we're due a curveball year. I have a weird feeling about Dizzee too. Amy Winehouse probly too M-People to win, tho if she dies between now and the award that might swing things. I haven't heard most of the rest of that list, I assume it's tedious indie shite mostly? If they give it to Jamie T then all previous winners should hand theirs back.

surely we are due a "token" folk / classical win? it looks pretty barren, two previous winners there, but then it often does.

would like: maps or bat for lashes (you are all so wrong about her/them!)

more likely: klaxons or winehouse.

quite pleased to see the young knives on there though!

nypc/jamie t/the view - don't make me fucking laugh.

another miserably pointless list.

they should make it like the US shortlist prize - you have to have sold under 100,000 to be eligible. what the fuck is the point of the arctics being on there?

NYPC: because the Skins generation needed their own Bis

I saw Fionn Regan supporting Midlake a few months ago and thought he was very good. No idea what the album's like though.

You put a sales limit on, you make it niche. It's not supposed to be about that, it's supposed to reflect, lol, "quality". Weirdly, they don't do this for the benefit of music obsessives.

bat for lashes have only one good song, that priscilla one. the rest is complete crap.

just been reminded - it's a surprise not to see the good, the band & the queen on there isn't it?

xpost NO, Titchy!

I think it's time for ILX to revisit the greatest piece of music writing ever:

Never mind the Britpop

The Arctic Monkeys have led pop music into a new golden era - and silenced the patronising old punks

Natalie Hanman
Wednesday February 8, 2006
The Guardian

If there is a tipping point in today's music scene, then the Arctic Monkeys are it. The Yorkshire indie-rock band, who have just released the fastest-selling debut album in chart history, are the sound that defines today's generation of young music fans - and it's something to be proud of.

For years, everyone under the age of 25 has had to endure the gloats of older, supposedly wiser, music lovers. Today's tunes, they say, are disposable, derivative and dull. We should have been there when Britpop gripped the nation in 1995! Or 80s disco! Or punk! Or the original rock'n'roll revolution! Oh, we should have been there ... whenever it was, so long as it isn't now.

Every generation is indulgently nostalgic towards its musical heirs. They pity us for being too young to appreciate quality music or - more pitiable yet - for not even being born when such exciting sounds first graced British ears. Well, I might have been born in the 80s, but that doesn't mean I must prefer its music to that of the noughties.

Now it's our turn to give a smug "up yours" to the punk generation et al. The Arctic Monkeys signal the triumph of a new wave that is going to be remembered as long as any previous heyday. The likes of the Libertines, Babyshambles, Bloc Party, Franz Ferdinand and the Kaiser Chiefs lead an onslaught of indie-rock bands that are selling out shows, storming up the charts and creating a golden age of music not heard since the days of Britpop a decade ago.

The latest figures from the BPI, the trade association of UK record companies, reveal that a rapidly growing digital market and an increasing hunger for homegrown talent have contributed to last year being one of the most successful yet for British music. Artist album sales (as opposed to compilations) in Britain have seen year-on-year growth since 1999, surging from 87.7m to 126.2m last year - an increase of almost 50% in just six years - while the digital music market grew by 350% last year.

It is an overlooked fact that UK acts dominated the best-selling album charts in 2005, occupying all top five positions. While Franz Ferdinand warmed up with an impressive 700,000 sales of their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, in the UK alone during the four months after its release, the Arctic Monkeys have now confirmed the indie-rock revolution we've been waiting for. Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, shifted a hugely satisfying 360,000 copies in its first week and stormed to the top of the album charts, where it has stayed for the second week running. A spokesman for the music retailer HMV summed it up nicely: "We haven't seen anything quite like this since the Beatles."

But those Monkeys must watch their backs, as the ageing bastions of the UK music scene typically sharpen their yellowing claws to bring new bands down to size. You are music that is only good for good-for-nothing 16-year-olds, they say; you probably don't even write your own lyrics, they sneer; you used the internet to market yourselves, and that's anathema to the real nature of music. And now the band are even being lambasted by a leading NHS specialist for the album's supposedly provocative cover art, which features a young man smoking. As one music journalist wrote this week: "Are [the Arctic Monkeys] deserving of such hyberbole? They are if you're 16 and crackers about music; just not if you're much older than that."

Well, you can keep your ageing sounds - today's fresh-faced youth are downloading their way to something fresh and exciting. With Rupert Murdoch's networking website MySpace planning to launch a UK-specific version any minute now - giving an initial emphasis to the hugely popular and influential music section - the sound of our times will become set even more firmly in history's stone.

NYPC has only just been released (like, yesterday?) wasn't there a ruling oldskool that ststed the albums had to come out june-june, so like at least a month prior to the announcement.

Bores the tits off me but I have his first single somewhere, I think, so I hope he wins. In real terms the Dizzee album is better than everything else there put together. Someone mentioned the token folk blah blah but there doesn't seem to be one (folkies don't listen to BFL, arguably with good cause)

sorry, massive xpost re: Fionn Regan

Albarn's been robbed.

Am I allowed to say that?

No.

Dealers need to get paid too

Oh.

do we get to find out whos on the panel for these things and if they do actually like music?

The panel consists of plucky lightweight boxing scrub Willie Lomond and four of his mates.

ALbarn did his nut when he was last nominated for Gorillaz' DemonDays.

My guess is EMI didn't enter the album.

Good fucking god, that's a HORRID shortlist.

Mercury Music Prize 2007 Eligibility:
http://rateyourmusic.com/list/djmartian/mercury_music_prize_2007_eligibility

Some Eligible Albums for the Mercury Music Prize 2007. i.e British or Irish Artists who released an album between July 18th 2006 and July 9th 2007.

I would have thought Burial would be on the list, tbh: the sort of thing the Mercury likes (or used to like, perhpas)

Burial predates the list - it's May 2006.

even wileys album on there would have been something.

Burial wasn't eligible for this year (released May 2006). Having seen the longlist of entrants last year, it wasn't even entered.

wonder why he did his nut? yeah 'the good the bad and the queen' is a weird omission.

Has anyone seen the official longlist of entrants for this year? (last year, Ronan's music journalist friend Una published a list of her blog, UnaRocks)

Why don't the Mercury Prize at least have the respect to publish a list of entrants?

i can't think of anything which 'should' be on the list. dizzee and amy's albums probably are the best two eligible british ones. actually dizzee and amy may have made the ONLY two decent british albums of the past year!

AMy Winehouse will win oktkxtara.

Deos the NME still go in for hating on the Mercurys these days? Obv you gotta protect the brand etczzzz but I mean this list, apart from the Basquiat Strings, is basically stuff they've uncritically arselicked on release is it not? I'm aware this isn't a burning issue, I just recall when they absolutely tore into it

this mercury list suits this glastonbury line-up perfectly = both are like so over.

My alternative Mercury Shortlist;

1. 65daysofstatic – The Destruction Of Small Ideas
2. Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position
3. Acoustic Ladyland – Skinny Grin
4. Electrelane – No Shouts No Calls
5. The Tuss – Rushup Edge
6. The Clientele – God Save The Clientele
7. Two Lone Swordsmen – Wrong Meeting II
8. Jarvis Cocker – Jarvis
9. The Good The Bad & The Queen – TGTB&TQ
10. Simian Mobile Disco – Attack Decay Sustain Release
11. Working For A Nuclear Free City – WFANFC
12. Ray Quinn – Ray Quinn

The year's Simon Frith soundbites:

via
http://music.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,,2128401,00.html

"This year's Nationwide Mercury Prize shortlist celebrates a remarkable range of artists who use their albums to tell stories, shape moods, explore emotions and lift the spirits," said Simon Frith, Chair of Judges. "The list marks the emergence of a wealth of eclectic talent making music with great energy, excitement and personality."

I am glad Jonathan King is not on the list.

I have got the Young Knives album (they are appartently from where I'm from) but I don't think it deserves an award.

I also have Candie Payne.

WTF re Maps.

Bored me to tears that album, i was seriously looking forward to it, only to end up eating a great big slice of Disappointment Cake.
Only Klaxons on that list interests me (not heard NYPC yet .. )

no, there was no uncritical arselick for NYPC's album. a hedge-y 7/10.

I liked "Here Comes The Rumour Mill" by Young Knives but the album was rubbish.

Which means on that list Klaxons are my favourite! Blimey. HOWEVER I haven't heard Dizzee or NYPC albums yet, and I will probably like them better. At least I hope I will.

NYPC have about as much right to be there as The Noisettes.

I saw the Noisettes on Sunday! It was free, though. They aren't very good.

OH MY GOD DELETE BRITAIN

OH MY GOD

If the AMs win again (they won't, but if they do) I will...ooh, I don't know what I'll do.

Southall's list is awesome! Need to get hold of Wolf/Electrelane ASAP...oh, and I'd stick ESP in there instead of Simian Mobile Disco :P

SMD's album is the best by a British act i've heard this year.

Like I say, I only have one of their remixes to go on, and it's the worst remix I've ever heard. Perhaps I ought to give their songs proper a listen...

hang on, should i really be paying attention to the electric soft parade? i always assumed them to be tedious sub-embrace chancers.

charlie are you actually considering revisiting a band you'd rightly dismissed as rubbish on LOUIS' recommendation?!

a fine point, sir. i wouldn't dismiss SMD in its favour! but i'd never heard a single soul saying nice things about ESP ever*, so it was a bit of a shock.

*qualify: since 1998 and i didn't like them then

they released their first record in 2002 *eyes roll*

lex, WAI 2 AD HOMINEM, a recommendation is a recommendation, no matter who gives it. You give the impression of stereotyping my music taste into limited and one-dimensional cliches.

ESP's second album is brilliant, take it from me, and the one released this year isn't far behind.

oh shit, then i might even be confusing them with another band entirely! brighton teens (as was), brothers even?

yeah, they were brighton teens, and moreover brothers, but they didn't release a note until 2002.

the fionn regan album is great - miles better than the token folk nominees of the past several years.

rubbish list, though - soundly! i think amy will win, yessir.

Why are Simian Mobile disco on your list Southall? You totally panned them on stylus. (rightly by my reckoning!) Electrelane! That was a kick ass album. The view wtf?!

Klaxons album was my favorite this year but I predict Amy Winehouse.

Simian Mobile Disco are on my list for the same reason as Ray Quinn is.

I will be putting together an elite panel of judges and awarding an alternative prize on the same day, btw. Who wants in?

i would, but you specify 'elite' and i've (almost) never had a review published in my life

yr in

but i'm out of the country without internet for a week :-/

and i can't just say "I vote WFANFC" or "I vote 65DOS" because I haven't heard half those records yet

Just run an ILX poll. Your list is great by the way.

that jaime t dude sounds like g love

widget player for the mercury prize 2007
http://www.7digital.com/mercury-music-prize

"We've created a cool widget to use on your Myspace, blog or other site. The widget updates automatically with the latest tracks. To get the widget, just follow the instructions below."

Amy Winehouse probly too M-People to win,

wtf?

WTF WHERE ARE smd ?

no Editors either?

I will be putting together an elite panel of judges and awarding an alternative prize on the same day, btw. Who wants in?

Yes, please, I'd like to add my gossamer opinion.

i heard the klaxons in top shop. fucking abject.

well unweapon

Enrique just parrots Lex's opinions AGAIN.

If you love Plan B so much why don't you marry it?

someone's just made a very good point - what about lily allen? i'm sure it fits in with this year's catchment area...

it's complete shit?

Scott Walker counts as American right?

as an American, yes.

it's complete shit?

i'll never understand the lily hate. it's one of the best pop albums of the last decade!

compared to kate nash, yes. compared to albums which are actually good, no.

though lily is v good on the dizzee album!

i dunno, seems just a token sales-boost/cred-boost exchange - how many gal MCs would've made that track so much better?

tho i enjoyed her performance of 'Gangsters' with Terry 'Utterly Thrilled To Be Here In My Nice Suit Wait Why Are My Feet Stuck Firm To The Floor?' Hall on repeat of Glasto coverage

Parlophone Seals Bat For Lashes Deal
http://tinyurl.com/32c5bp

EMI and Capitol labels will carry forthcoming Bat For Lashes' forthcoming releases internationally, while Astralwerks will issue the artist's critically-acclaimed debut "Fur and Gold" in the U.S. on July 31.

'it's complete shit' is the worst explanation for why an album isn't in MMP noms list ever. same time next year!

bat for lashes ftw!

look at the evidence:

1. female (not had one since polly)
2. asian (not had one since talvin)
3. posh (not had one since...um)
4. suddenly well positioned to exploit resulting publicity (international potential recognised by industry)
5. arty but accessible thanks to the (misleading but powerful) Bjork/Bush factor
6. that's it

she looks a lot like lily allen in her video

that's no.6 then!

Lily Allen's album was supposedly one of the 'missed' albums last year.

yep, a year ago this happened..

http://tinyurl.com/2pzszv

British singer LILY ALLEN's record company have consoled their protege with a surprise cash bonus after the singer missed out on a prestigious nomination for the Mercury Music Prize. With her debut single SMILE topping the British charts, bosses at Allen's label Parlophone were stunned when the funky star failed to be honoured with a nod. So they awarded Allen anyway - with a $37,000 (GBP20,000) payout. An industry source tells British newspaper the Daily Star, "Everyone in the Lily camp is really proud of her success. Going straight to number one with Smile is a massive achievement for her and the way she's handled the fame is admirable." "Behind the scenes it was widely expected Lily would be on the Mercury list as she's an innovative performer with genuine lyrics. Her label thought the Mercury's would love her. When the nominees came through, Lily was naturally a bit dismayed but didn't let it get her down. "But her team thought that she had deserved a perk and have put $37,000 in her bank account."

bloody hell. i wonder if my boss will do the same for me this year, since i wasn't nominated...

DrownedinSound jump on the bandwagon of suggesting an alternative shortlist

The Weekly DiScussion: our alternative Mercury list...
http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/2208724

it was widely expected Lily would be on the Mercury list as she's an innovative performer with genuine lyrics

they are, genuinely, lyrics.

xpost

dj martian: 'we invented the shortlist'

shit, The Twilight Sad album should be right up there.

i just googled them. please tell me they are a parody band. track titles:

1. But When She Left, Gone Was the Glow
2. That Summer, At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
3. Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard
4. And She Would Darken the Memory
5. Three Seconds of Air

no they are Very Serious but Inspirationally Freeform musicians. Live, they're kinda incredble, and on headphones they'll fling your mind around like a shuttlecock.

Why do people even care about this joke of a prize?

Mercury,Brits,NME,Kerrang Awards , don't need any of them. Fuck them all.

Twilight Sad sound like Idlewild taking the piss out of Belle & Sebastian. They're not as dreadful as that sounds, though.

singer has a HARDCORE scottish accent, certainly.

Twilight Sad sound like Idlewild taking the piss out of Belle & Sebastian. They're not as dreadful as that sounds, though.

I'm not sure I'd want to hear that though!

they have the worst most transparently b&s titles ever.

1. But When She Left, Gone Was the Glow
2. That Summer, At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy
3. Last Year's Rain Didn't Fall Quite So Hard
4. And She Would Darken the Memory
5. Three Seconds of Air

wtf is this shit, that's repulsive

word

B&S is HUGE red herring here, folks.

Three seconds too much amirite?!? xpost

The Brigadier has a point, I recommend instead listen to The Mirimar Disaster from Sheffield who in 2007 released the best British complex-intense-math-metal album since Earthtone 9 - arc'tan'gent in 2000.

The Mirimar Disaster
http://www.myspace.com/themirimardisaster

the best British complex-intense-math-metal album since Earthtone 9 - arc'tan'gent in 2000

so say the flyposters

Why do people even care about this joke of a prize?

Mercury,Brits,NME,Kerrang Awards , don't need any of them. Fuck them all.

-- Brigadier Lethbridge-Pfunkboy

Haven't you been posting end of year polls from all these for months?

But yeah, hats off to DiS for getting to heart of the matter of these things; it doesn't matter whether your 'alternatives' are better or more innovative, just that they're different to the ones that actually got nominated

Damn - what a sorry list. Wouldn't this money be better spent on black magic to resurrect Freddie Mercury?

Who wants to live forever?

ha I remember reading last year on the web some wacky yank journo thought that the Mercury awards were named have Freddie Mercury ! (When they were originally sponsored by a now long gone telecommunications company.)

Some wacky Welsh based journo writing about the Mercury prize 2007 shortlist, this article is so unintentionally funny:

http://tinyurl.com/2g37ff
Does Mercury Prize leave you feeling old?

Jul 18 2007

by Sarah Miloudi, Western Mail

home is where the harp is!

Haha, Huw Stephens pretending he's only heard of 'most' of the noms aside from tokenclassicalers

I wonder if Chair of judges Simon Frith remembers writing this in 1985?

"What really drives student entrepreneurs into a premature commercial detachment is their audiences. Every new ents officer learns from first-term results; black music has no student draw; known bands are preferred to unknown bands; no one in the student union cares who the latest critical cult figures are. Students are the great, middle-class, middle-brow bastion of British rock and, after twenty years, their tastes aren't about to be shaken."

Probably not...

The weird thing about the Mercury prize is that they don't get different judges every time. This year is Lauren Laverne's 2nd go-round at least and someone else, whose name I've annoyingly forgotten, has done it FOUR times!

Edith Bowman?

I enjoyed Terry Hall at Glastonbury too. I thought it was going to be a real Specials-obsessed festival at one point, with Winehouse and Allen both doing Specials songs, but that was it, as far as I know.

the thing with that frith quote is: OK, but who *does* care about the latest critical cult figures? if students are the m-c, m-b bastion blah blah blah, who is the avant-garde? wire readers i guess. seems to be people older than students with more disposable income, in their own way just as conformist.

Frith wrote that in 1985. I guess things have changed for him since. And everyone else.

Oops, I laready said he wrote it in 1985. That's coz I use the bookmark feature and so cannot see beyond the last post marked.

Winehouse will walk it this year.

597 please will you shutfuckup

); I'm just a rascal.

I enjoyed Terry Hall at Glastonbury too. I thought it was going to be a real Specials-obsessed festival at one point, with Winehouse and Allen both doing Specials songs, but that was it, as far as I know.

Well, Amy Winehouse did two of them in a row (unless you don't count Monkey Man), and Neville Staple played a set too. So yes, I think it was quite Specials. Madness played a secret gig on The Park stage too, apparently.

I just reminded myself of all the previous Mercury winners. Amy Winehouse's Back To Black is better than all the albums that have won in the last 10 years, anyway. I hope she will win. Think she might well do, too.

597, soz: x-reading over other threads.

mercury prize: the gift that keeps giving again?

fucking hell, alba, really?

Amy Winehouse's Back To Black is better than all the albums that have won in the last 10 years, anyway

xpost
blimey, i was just about to hit the sack before i saw that cracker.
she's rubbish, but that won't stop her winning. it hasn't for the majority of previous winners.

i've quite liked her last three singles. i wouldn't buy them or anything.

Amy Winehouse's Back To Black is better than all the albums that have won in the last 10 years, anyway

before you laugh, look at what's won :/

(winehouse is better than all but...one or two of the past decade's winners? dizzee definitely, pj...maaaaaybe but that's pj's worst album. ms dynamite is better at her best but that album is not great.)

dizzee, pj, roni size are better.

it's true there's been a lot of shit winning... she'll only add to the pile though. being better than gomez and arctic monkeys is not a great achievement.

(winehouse is better than all but...one or two of the past decade's winners?

noooo

she just so booorrring

i think her only problem is she's TOO retro/tribute musically and they should be rewarding something more "modern sounding". i'd say the same about the AMs tho.

I really liked the Klaxons singles but the album got old. I'm guessing their popularity peaked already. Winehouse has talent but material on album is spotty. Aside from Milanese, the UK stuff I've been enjoying is pretty poppy. Just saw Maxïmo Park on Monday, and it was far, far more enjoyable than my Pitchfork experience. Very high energy, everyone singing along.

Milanese - Extend
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures
The Rakes - Ten New Messages
Field Music - Tones Of Town
Good Shoes - Think Before You Speak
Noisettes - What's The Time Mr. Wolf?
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

Judges, nicked from elsewhere:

Simon Frith - music author/Professor of Music at University of Edinburgh
Charles Hazlewood - conductor and broadcaster on Radio 2, Radio 3 and BBC 4
Lauren Laverne - broadcaster, The Culture Show and Channel 4’s Transmission
Conor McNicholas - Editor of NME
George Ergatoudis - Head of Music, Radio 1
Dean Jackson – Presenter The Beat BBC Nottingham
Arwa Haider - Music Editor, Metro/Front Row contributor
Zoe Rahman - jazz musician
Mark Findlay - Head of Music, GCAP’s The One Network
Jude Rogers - Reviews Editor, Word Magazine/New Statesman/The Guardian

Not that anyone here might have any vested interests... No sir, Conor and George.

anyone had a flutter? do you usually?

like most people on here i guess, i've been right about half the time with the winners over the years, and in the talvin singh / pj harvey years could have won a flippin fortune! but i've never bet on it.

how's about you guys?

I'm currently thinking Bat For Lashes, but 5/2 (joint favourite with Amy Winehouse) isn't really worth it*. If Winehouse can pull off a massive recovery she might win, maybe all her gig-cancelling is to try and lengthen her odds?

current odds from Bet365:
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black 5/2
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold 5/2
Jamie T - Panic Prevention 3/1
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future 9/1
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare 9/1
Fionn Regan - The End of History 10/1
Maps - We Can Create 14/1
The View - Hats off to the Buskers 22/1
New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom 25/1
The Young Knives - Voices of Animals and Men 28/1
Dizzee Rascal - Maths and English 40/1
Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford - Basquiat Strings 40/1

*I know nothing about betting.

Maps is a good bet.

That Bat for Lashes album is terrible.

It's better than the Maps album.

they're both very bad albums

Not heard the Maps. That NYPC album is so unbelievably boring. And how did they pick the wrong Seb Rochford record? I bet Skinny Grin wasn't even entered bcz of V2 meltdown.

Who is Fionn Regan?

I quite like the Bat For Lashes song with the video with the bikes. I don't actually like any of these albums, (although I haven't heard Regan, Young Knives or Basquiat - and that's the only one I'd like to hear, I think).

Who is Fionn Regan?

Irishy singer-songwriter type.

The Basquiat is nice, aye, a good record, but Skinny Grin is some other-level evenmt stuff, there. If they'd picked that and had the guts to make it win they'd have saved the world from nuclear holocaust.

9/1 for the arctic monkeys?! that's nuts surely?

klaxons down to £3 in sainsburys. woolworths not stocking mia's kala.

same band winning two years in a row damaging credibility further is the fear there (xp)

Nothing says credibility like Bat for fucking Lashes

Whinehouse to win shurely.

Of course the Pony Club piss all over the rest of them from a great height, but whatever.

BAN SEEKALTROUTE

tonight.

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold 7/4
Jamie T - Panic Prevention 3/1
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black 10/3
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future 9/1
Maps (pictured) - We Can Create 12/1
Source: Ladbrokes

my god nypc are the worst shit ever.

worse than jamie t???

It's so hard to decide on the worst this year. So many different ways to be bad. Still going for Bat for Lashes as the lousiest though.

I think The Klaxons may be my fave album out of them.

there's a BAT FOR LASHES track i heard that has a dance-y beat. is there just that one or are there more?

Anyone but Jamie T.

Ladbrokes have now closed the books on Bat for Lashes winning the Mercury following another giant wager being put on her to win this morning.

apprntly.

I actually listened to the Bat for Lashes album for the first time at the weekend - the opening track made me think the record was going to be awesome and Bjorkish and I remember being incredibly disappointed when it actually went somewhere rather dull.

well strike me dumb

Best shot in the two minutes I saw was Dizzee looking bored and pissed off and resigned to losing.

New Young Pony Club is fantastic. The only other one I've heard is Dizzee.

HEAR THAT RATTLING SOUND? THAT'S THE DEATH OF MUSI ...

... actually, i couldn't give half a rotten shit. the only album on the list i was remotely interested in was the maps one, and even then it really isn't that good.

actually, no: i'd like to hear dizzee, and for some reason haven't.

still, anyway. farting into a bottle will be the authentic sound of desperate dinner parties for the next few weeks. ha! joy.

Anyone but Jamie T.

otm

New Young Pony Club is fantastic.

http://freenoise.org/wrong/wrong.gif

I've liked "Ice Cream" since last summer, but when I listened to the album last week, I fully expected to hate it and instead was pleasantly surprised. It's got sort of a nice Tom Tom Club flair to it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6977433.stm

The "new rave" group from south London scooped the £20,000 prize for their debut Myths of the Near Future.

Singer Jamie Reynolds said they deserved to beat Winehouse because she made a "retro record and we've made the most forward-thinking record".

NME editor Conor McNicholas, who was on the judging panel, said Winehouse's performance at the ceremony was "amazing".

"I've never been to an awards ceremony where somebody has performed and the room has been genuinely silent, proper pin-drop stuff," he said.

"But we have to take into account an awful lot and at the end of the day the Klaxons was felt to be the right decision.

"It's an album that could only ever have been made in Britain, could only ever have been made at this moment in time and it's a multi-layered album."

Winehouse's album was "one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen", he admitted.

But he added: "You can argue that ultimately it is a backward-looking album and one of the things Klaxons have tried to do is produce something that feels like it came from the future."

Does that NME guy only speak in ridiculous cliches? "one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen"? "it came from the future" when the name of the album is... ah fuck, I give up here.

"It's an album that could only ever have been made in Britain, could only ever have been made at this moment in time and it's a multi-layered album."

LOLOLOL

Singer Jamie Reynolds said they deserved to beat Winehouse because she made a "retro record and we've made the most forward-thinking record".

"one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen"

But he added: "You can argue that ultimately it is a backward-looking album and one of the things Klaxons have tried to do is produce something that feels like it came from the future."

I basically agree with the NME guy.

"We are moving forward."

I also like New Young Pony Club - "Ice Cream" is GREAT.

At least the Arctic Monkeys didn't win again?

I wish I had had a bet.

Why is the judging panel so bad? Who is Simon Frith anyway? Why can't they get, (ducks) Paul Morley or someone on it?

Actually, I was going to compare the judging panel unfavourably with the Booker, but that isn't very inspiring either.

Chaired by Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the line-up consists of Wendy Cope, poet; Giles Foden, journalist and author of BAFTA award winning The Last King of Scotland; Ruth Scurr, biographer and critic and Imogen Stubbs, actor.

frith is a good bloke but has a very low profile, i'll admit. he's also been doing this for a looong time.

i should reiterate that i don't give a fuck about the mercury, and i'm not sure why i'm wasting valuable seconds discussing it or thinking about it. hmph.

I know he's done it since it started, and I just googled him and found out he wrote the Sociology of Rock, but ...

I think it's a good idea to have a music prize not based on sales or whatever, so it's worth, erm, a minute or two thinking about.

Although the Woody Allen line does come to mind. "What's with all these awards? They're always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler."

Who's actually on the panel? Every year it's a nightmare to find out. I know Conor McNicholas is on it, and obviously Frith chairs it, but who else? How are these 'experts' qualified?

It's upthread.

Simon Frith - music author/Professor of Music at University of Edinburgh
Charles Hazlewood - conductor and broadcaster on Radio 2, Radio 3 and BBC 4
Lauren Laverne - broadcaster, The Culture Show and Channel 4’s Transmission
Conor McNicholas - Editor of NME
George Ergatoudis - Head of Music, Radio 1
Dean Jackson – Presenter The Beat BBC Nottingham
Arwa Haider - Music Editor, Metro/Front Row contributor
Zoe Rahman - jazz musician
Mark Findlay - Head of Music, GCAP’s The One Network
Jude Rogers - Reviews Editor, Word Magazine/New Statesman/The Guardian

So the BBC and IPC have basically given this award?

I mentioned this before elsewhere, but I'd be interested in setting up an alternative to this shower of shite. How would I go about it? I'd need corporate sponsorship, presumably.

I'd help with the setting-up. There needs to be some sort of mass recognition given to alternative/good artists operating in the UK.

Longtime readers may be interested to know that the 2007 Lex 20p Music Prize for services to indie was won by Art Brut, beating the Klaxons into joint third place with The View.

Who'd you have given it to this year Sick mouthy?

Patrick Wolf

I'd be interested in setting up an alternative to Nick's shower of shite. How would I go about it? I'd need to give a rat's arse about shiny baubles, presumably.

Jokes, brzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

If anyone ever starts to think this, I think they should sit down with a nice cup of tea and remember that they are having the same thought (or at least the same press release) as whoever decided the NME Brat Awards would be an amusingly edgy alternative to the Brits.

i approve of anything that sets out to undermine stagnant (more) establishment practices tho

Stylus, Plan B, DiS and your mum teaming up to present an alternative award to an album from the last 12 months by a DEBUTANT only could be good just for taking some of the media glare away from the MMP.

i am all for a poll of debutantes.

the Popjustice prize actually got mentioned on 6 Music's MMP preview so they'll go for anything as long as they can link it all together.

Jools Holland was fucking awful last night. More so than usual.

Haha the guardian piece on it has a link to ...

Our one-star review of the winning album

lol, guardian out of touch with forward-looking music non-shock.

Stylus, Plan B, DiS and your mum
My mum is filling in a vote for Marcus du Sautoy audio books right now.

I guess you have to know when to stop these things. (Are the Brats still going? By 2000 they were the same as the Brits.) But my kneejerk reaction is against.

Then again I'm one of those people who is generally fairly happy with what Stylus and Plan B cover up until I'm being told how IMPORTANT it is and deserves MORE RECOGNITION.

http://music.guardian.co.uk/pop/alexispetridis/story/0,,2162690,00.html

redresses the oversight.

Yes, but it was by the Lex ...

RIP

i wonder what charles hazelwoods' choice was.

its blend of distorted guitars, euphoric tunes and baffling lyrics... bore almost no relation whatsoever to old rave, the dance music that briefly held sway over British youth in the early 90s.

thanks for the history lesson.

Briefly? Fuck you, rockists.

I fancy the New Young Pony Club's saucy keyboardist, but now I've just found out she's shagging one of the Klaxons.
I hate the Klaxons.
Apart from "Golden Skans" and "It's Not Over Yet", which, bar "Pussyhole", are probably the two best songs on any of these albums.

biefly? *HELD SWAY*???

effortless songwriting nous
effortless songwriting nous
effortless songwriting nous

effotless != good when it comes to songwriting you berk

and it's not even a Friday