Barclaycard Mercury Music Prize 2012 - thread.

It says here: "The Barclaycard Mercury prize ‘2012 albums of the year’ will be revealed at 5.30pm on 12 September ... the announcement, made by presenter and broadcaster Lauren Laverne, will be hosted by The Hospital Club in London's Covent Garden." And if that's not enough to get you out of bed, then what is?

We'll be bringing you those nominations the second they are announced this afternoon and we'll run a poll on who you think should be the ultimate winner on 1 November – plus our critic Alexis Petridis Lex will wade in with his thoughts. But before then let us know who you'd most like to make it on to the list.

What is the worst possible album that is most likely to win this?

Ed Sheerhan or someone probably.

Yikes!

I think his "Plus" record just qualifies, dateofissuewise

The Maccabees, ‘Given To The Wild’
Ben Howard, ‘Every Kingdom’
Lianne La Havas, ‘Is Your Love Big Enough’
Plan B,’Ill Manors’
Alt-J, ‘An Awesome Wave’
Field Music, ‘Plumb’
Michael Kiwanuka, ‘Home Again’
Sam Lee, ‘Ground Of Its Own’
Richard Hawley, ‘Standing At The Sky’s Edge’
Jessie Ware, ‘Devotion’
Django Django, ‘Django Django’
Roller Trio, ‘Roller Trio’

good god

Lianne La Havas, ‘Is Your Love Big Enough’
Jessie Ware, ‘Devotion’
Django Django, ‘Django Django’

these three are pretty good but it's almost like they're just fucking with us now w/r/t middle-class narrowcasting

Yeah I like the Jessie Ware and Django Django albums but good grief that's a boring list.

list is zzz (LIKE EVERY YEAR so i don't know whether people genuinely give a shit? or are just talking about something they don't care about?) but i'm gleaning what i can from it and focusing on the dreadful albums that got snubbed: kindness, twin shadow, ed sheeran

(obv i like j ware but saying so in this context is so bloody boring)

is twin shadow even british? does anyone care?

he's American

who the hell is roller trio? sam lee?

alt-j is going to win, obviously

LOL

∆ (pronounced Alt-J) is a British alternative indie pop quartet

Jessie Ware will probably win it but that's almost TOO obvious.

I'm just worried this will overshadow coverage of the UK Packaging Awards

Roller Trio (no I'd never heard of em either)

Sam Lee's the token folk

Don't they usually nominate some artists that most people have heard of?

how gross would it be if plan b won though

he's the voice of a generation

haha I was just about to ask if any of these were worth caring about

http://www.electricpandamusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/alt-j.jpeg

don't worry girls, they're single

pretty sure i supported one of these in BTec Media Studies last year

good on dude on the far left for bringing back the Generra sweater

good on all of them for making me want to bring back National Service

I don't know, Tilda Swinton has done good work in the past, I think we should let her run with this and see where it ends up

nice of MarkG to get the sponsor in the thread title

I'm sure they're a shitty shitty band, but can you please concentrate your insults on that instead of becoming the appearance police? It doesn't reflect well on you.

but then i'd have to listen to them?

(i know you are right but some press shots are kinda irresistable)

so anyway, indie's shit, who's next on the list?

fuck me Richard Hawley's still going

does he just mail them straight to the Mercury panel and cut out the shops process altogether?

I've heard none of these albums... But I don't think I've heard any British albums at all this year... I've heard a few 12'' and mixtapes and stuff, but no albums. So yeah.

if we can't make fun of how british indie bands look we should just shut ilm down imo

That whole band is made up of Alexis from Hot Chip looky-likeys

If that's all you get from your participation on ILM, I am truly sorry for you.

xpost

A shame nobody in Britain made any good electronic music in the past year. Unless… wait a minute

I like the same three as Tracer - Ware, La Havas and Django - plus half the Plan B (though mainly the single to be honest) and Field Music is a very popular choice among friends I trust but I haven't heard it yet.

What i heard of the Richard Hawley (admittedly very little) sounded like a cross between Edwyn Collins and stodgy Paul Weller circa Heavy Soul.

Wish they'd gone for Paul Buchanan as their miserable old man option instead, that record is devastating

emil.y, I actually am a gigantic fan of the Generra sweater (aka "the Cosby sweater") and unironically miss them; it comes across as snarky but I am actually 100% in favor of the return of that type of fashion

also that one dude does totally look like Tilda Swinton and there wasn't actually a judgment about the band or their actual worth in the joke I made about that

Alright then if we're going for records that should've been there

CHER LLOYD
Cooly G
Delilah (now I love Jessie Ware but uhh can someone explain to me the disparity in coverage between these two)
Gazelle Twin

Delilah (now I love Jessie Ware but uhh can someone explain to me the disparity in coverage between these two)

I like both, but you know as well as I do this happens all the time. One PR push sticks and the other doesn't, and then everybody pays attention to one and ignores the other. It happens in pop, in rock, in rap, in r&b, in country.

shoulda been ... Reform Club - Claro Intelecto

feels a bit late to be finally nominating field music - surely they deserved a nomination for 'measure' or 'tones of town' - i only gave 'plumb' a cursory skim but felt it sounded a bit flat in comparison ... will check out the django as it keeps getting recommended to me

Django Django had some good singles a couple years back, but I still haven't heard the record. I should.

delilah has come from an urban industry background and in terms of the kinda coffee table ~poise~ people hang their hats on this is fatally downmarket i guess

with urban thinking also comes the limited conception of popular remixes supposedly doing the donkey work for a separate magnum opus where in fact with this (slogging bloody dreary it must be said) delilah album they would not only fit in but illuminate and define the whole (redlight and joe goddard mixes i'm thinking here). yes jessie ware had the disclosure and zed bias mixes but they were part of the dance subplot of bashmore producing, listeners could expect some sort of narrative however thin

but let's be real, perception aside delilah makes less appealing music point blank

shoulda been ... Reform Club - Claro Intelecto

This would have been awesome but also soooo never going to happen. Rustie probably had more chance as far as electronic stuff goes, but even that seems a million miles from this list.

nice of MarkG to get the sponsor in the thread title

― J0rdan S., Wednesday, 12 September 2012 17:35 (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Was searching for Mercury threads, and all the prior sponsors are there mentioned as well.

the albums framework for this is feeling pretty creaky. breakthrough-ish statements tend to come in the form of EPs nowadays it seems to me

huh i actually know this year's token folk pick in sam lee. i saw him last year and he was surprisingly good, though some guy at some random folk night in a pub being surprisingly good perhaps isn't the highest accolade. and then i watched a video of his and it was... not good.

the only enjoyment I get from this worthless prize is seeing Guardian comment psychos pitch a fit when it's won by someone's music they don't like. based on that I'm rooting for Plan B as afaict there's no real groundswell of hatred for any of the others

an honourable tradition that goes right back to the fun i had watching losers pitch a fit the year M-People won it

But if they had been celebrating it winning you would have been complaining about it

I have some degree of tolerance for Foals-esque indie drivel but good grief this Maccabees record is horrid.

Also, I think I've seen people wearing these and assumed it was a Macc Lads t-shirt:

http://www.chilledworld.com/image/cache/data/T-Shirts/maccabees-gallery-500x500.jpg

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/i/merch/5653.jpg

This alt-j guy sounds like the bloke from Mungo Jerry

Actually when I said upthread that I hadn't heard any british albums this year, it was wrong: I've heard - and liked - the new one by XX...

Still, I'm kinda surprised by how unimpressive this batch seems, and that I can't really think of anything I'd rather see nominated (that seems possible to get a nomination). I used to be a huge fan of British music, and now I don't care.

Albums on the list that I bought: Plan B, Alt-J, Richard Hawley, Jessie Ware.
Albums I'll probably get for £3 in MVE in a year's time: Django Django, Field Music (I'm sure Plumb is v. good indeed but TOO MANY ALBUMS CHAPS).
Don't know the token jazz or folk ones, and the rest is Radio 2 playlist time.

Hawley should win ("should" as in "there should be peace on Earth") and Bill Fay should have been on the list. Otherwise not bothered one way or the other; it is what it is.

No PJ harvey album this year, and Beth Orton's one is out next month so will probably be on the list next year.

Bought: Django Django, Jessie Ware, Field Music (still prefer Measure though) and Sam Lee (which is my favourite UK folk album of the year, excellent choice, dead chuffed about that one).
On my shopping list, fully intend to buy: Alt-J
On my Spoify, fully intend to play: Plan B
Kiwanuka and Le Havas did nothing for me, actively disliked the Maccabees, have made several failed attempts to get into the Hawley.
Very much want to hear the Roller Trio, as there's supposed to be this amazing young jazz scene in Leeds, and they're from Leeds, so maybe they will be amazing, yes?

You really like the Hawley album Marcello? I've loved all of his till now but this seems like a bad move - heavy psych of a very late 90s (Seahorses/Verve/Kula Shaker) vintage. My favourite songs are the quieter ones like Seek It and The Wood Collier's Grave.

I heard the concert he did with the BBC Philharmonic on 6Music; the orchestrations really brought out the strength of these songs. It's definitely a grower.

Actually now you mention live performance, when I saw him at the Forum, where half the crowd appeared to have turned up for a loud chat about their week at work, it was the rockier stuff - even the tracks I find flat and derivative on record - that worked best, while the quieter songs, especially the gorgeous Truelove's Gutter material, died a slow death.

2 days left to watch the orchestral thing fwiw - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01mltg4

i mean "listen to" obv

There's something about the discourse around Richard Hawley that I find irritating, reviewers tend to act like his name is such an obvious signifier of quality that it has this deadening artisanal farmers market effect on me. The whole list is pretty artisnal farmers market but none of them are treated with quite the same sense of worthiness.

None of this is really his fault but still it would be nice if he was at least occasionally greeted with the pisstaking that befits a former member of the Longpigs.

farmers market has caught the mood of the ilx nation i see

r|t|c would you mind sending me an email through the webform? i.e. click on my username and then send email. i tried sending you a couple that way but maybe the pipes weren't plumbed in

Seriously it's like a Swansea home game up in here.

Some of the list is merely Waitrose organic range I suppose.

guaranteed Quality.

tbf the former member of the Longpigs regularly takes the piss out of himself.

Roller Trio album is pretty decent. It's totally 'jazz for Radiohead fans' and is a bit too muso-y for my fire music damaged taste, but it's got a bit more edge than the usual token jazz nominee. There's even a bit of free blowing. Like a lot of the F-IRE Collective acts, they're obviously excellent musicians, but I wish they'd stop trying to be clever (look at our tricksy time changes!) and just freak out a bit more. Like Polar Bear, they tend to pull back just when they're getting excitingly skronky and loud. Some nice tunes on there though: they're good at making pretty ballads with Radiohead-y guitar figures.

They sound a bit like Troyka, then? If so, then I'll probably like them. I have a soft spot for tricksy time changes and reined-in skronk.

I was kind of okay with The Maccabees until the horns kicked in on "Child"

like, if they'd done the exact same thing but drowned the guitars in reverb this would be one of my favorite songs of the year, but instead it's kind of wimpy, overly tasteful nothing that wastes the arrangement (also doesn't help this song that the bits I've heard off of the new Mountain Goats album completely destroy this in the "indie band plays with horn section" game)

"Feel To Follow" is much better

there's something very "indie band apes Pet Shop Boys" about these guys

okay I cannot abide "Ayla"

this one song is obliterating the tentative good will built up by the previous two

Troyka? A wee bit. Less funk-based, but it has that itchy modern day fusion thing going on. I'm more of a sax man than a keyboard man, so I prefer em to Troyka. Trio VD is probably a good reference point, although they're less math-y and heavy.

Jessie Ware is 10x more boring than I was expecting, given the frothing hyperbole on release. The Kimbra album sounds how I expected Jessie Ware's to sound (although not British obv).

She's a good shot at winning though, as have The Maccabees (srsly do *not* rule it out), the Djangos, Alt-J and Plan B.

Pretty tedious year though. Where the hell is all the electronica?

I suspect I will like Roller Trio from that little exchange.

I like the Hawley, although not massively; I think it's comfort-blanket, though - I've not listened to anyone play guitars like that for a long time, and it was a nice sensation, especially given that I like his songwriting and the way he records things. It didn't sound like a big ego rock record in terms of production sheen, it properly sounds like a psyche-music record, which I really liked

Obviously I love and rep for the Field Music. It IS artisanal farmers market, but fuck it, I live in Exeter and shop and eat in places like the all the time. I think it's a really wonderful record lyrically, too, which isn't something I normally pick up on or find myself becoming attached to. It feels very (and there's no way to say this without sounding wanky and boring) moral and wholesome. It actually reminds me of Fugazi in terms of ethos, if not sound, obviously.

Macabbees I bought on the insistence of a couple of mates and because it was early-year and I was desperate for a record, but I just found it unfatnomably predictable, like a big bag of obvious "indie band gets mature" signifiers. Also hated the mixing / sound balance, feels really trebly and insubstantial to me.

Young guy at work who is a lovely chap and great at football always pick him first for my team at five a side etc etc loves Ben Howard and played some at me in the car when we had to drive to Cornwall back in February. Made me want to cut my own fucking hands off.

Alt-J I bought recently on, again, a friend's insistence (same friend as Macabbees, why do I not learn, etc etc), and it's interesting but I've not connected with it apart from Mathilda, which I think is lovely. Django Django I bought cos of the Beta Band comparisons but, again, I've not connected with it.

Psyche-muso was what I meant to put.

driving to Cornwall having to listen to Ben Howard sounds like the sort of banal experience which would nevertheless keep you awake in a fug of gloom 20 years later

Where the hell is all the electronica?

EPs

though i would have thought Actress might have got a look in

Actress, Blue Daisy, The 2 Bears, Emika, TEED... Orbital even!

actually Hot Chip should have made the list

Pleasantly surprised by the Alt-J album - genuinely different and strong from start to finish. That'll teach me not to be put off by bad press shots and boring interviews.

I left Hot Chip off cos I don't think they're really "electronic" in the same way as the above

If I could vote one album onto the shortlist, it would be Actress.

Rustie. Dean Blunt & Inga Copeland.

Hot Chip are Elton John's favourite "electronic band" so leaving them off is understandable, if only by that principle.

Could probably make a good case for Beak> and Liz Green as well

Who?

(actually I know who Beak> are and like them/him a lot but Radio 2 listeners don't and that appears to have been the governing force behind this list.)

Someone told me that one of the pointers that Frith gives the judges is that this should be an album you can confidently "recommend" to people, which might explain the timidity, although I suspect most of the judges aren't into Rustie or Actress in the first place. It would be an enormous help if Frith publicly communicated some of the principles behind the process - by comparison the Booker Prize is a model of transparency.

Every time the Booker judges talk about their rationale they come across as complete idiots though.

the Mercury Prize is an award for the best album that the sort of people who care about the Mercury Prize would like to win the Mercury Prize.

pretty straightforward.

sorry, maybe "the most Mercury Prizey album that the sort of people who care about Mercury Prizey albums would like to win the Mercury Prize".

xp Maybe they do, but they feel in some way accountable to people whereas Frith's lack of transparency just seems arrogant and unhelpful means that nothing ever changes and I'm still no nearer (notwithstanding NV's helpful summary) understanding the criteria either for the selection of judges or the decision process. In the absence of any other "credible" music prizes, it bothers me. I keep wishing someone else will take it over but I suspect they'll have to pry it from Frith's cold dead fingers.

Yes, the thing is which people does he have in mind to which one could confidently "recommend" records? SF has always been supremely useless as a critic and judge (I can't speak for his skills as a lecturer and tutor) because his "challops" have always badly misfired and are usually based on misleading or partial premises (see Sound Effects for instance). Britpop? Hey, let's give it to M People just to MAKE SOME NME STAFFERS FROWN and prove I AM MY OWN MAN.

It's a bit like Jann Wenner and the R&R Hall of Fame apropos cold dead fingers.

Who does Frith want the albums recommended to? I wouldn't recommend any of them to anyone and neither it seems would any of you lot.
The sad thing is people will now buy a lot of these albums because of this list when it could be spent on much better albums.

Didn't he turn up on an ILM MMP thread once? Did he give any answers then?

Radio 2 listeners. They don't want anything too far from their comfort zone (I understand there was a bit of a NEVER AGAIN-type tizzy in certain quarters when Antony & the Johnsons won) and Mercury want the exposure and ratings so that's why the list looks like a Jo Whiley Show running order.

That Antony & The Johnsons album is hardly difficult music even by Radio 2 standards. I thought most of the tizzy was around nationality and whether or not he should have been on the list in the first place?

There were mutters about "difficult music."

I reckon Speech Debelle was a "never again" moment for different reasons.

Former colleague of mine worked for whichever bank sponsored the Mercury when Anthony won; apparently the bank were NOT happy.

Oh man I have a good memory - it was 9 years ago he posted mercury music prize 2003

This is much the best discussion of the mmp I've read (and i certainly agree about all those journalists slagging us off--we (the judges) can write their comments in advice). This year's award for silliest response goes to maddy costa in the guardian.

― simon frith, Tuesday, 29 July 2003 20:45 (9 years ago)

That's probably always going to be the Mercury's problem behind closed doors though, isn't it? They need a sponsor who can afford top dollar to promote the prize, pay for all the session gigs, offer the prize pot etc, but anyone prepared to pay that much is likely to be after big-ass mainstream exposure for the money, and that's not (really) what the Mercurys are (supposed to be) about.

What would happen if the prize money was scrapped and it just became about perceived kudos, I wonder? You'd have to scrap the entry fee too, of course.

(Sorry, xpost to Nick)

I mean, surely nobody actually enters *for the money*?

I got really confused when you guys were talking about 'Frith' upthread. Like, FRED FRITH has something to do with this shambles? *smdh*

Algerian Goalkeeper you didn't seriously believe that was the real Simon Frith did you?

I always had in my head that it was the 'done thing' to donate yr winnings to charity but this stems from the 90s, you know when all popular music artists were millionaires

ned said it was as did sinkah

so i figured they would know (unless youre admitting it was you?)

The thing is, the nominations for the Mercury Prize are actually an international music-news story (and by that I mean that I've seen it mentioned on p4k and the Danish music-news sites I check out), which I don't think is the case for stuff like the Brit Awards or the NME awards. But no one outside of Britain cares about most of these names, while there is plenty of respect for stuff like Rustie, Actress etc. If the list continues to be so Radio 2-centric, I think the international prestige will completely dissapear...

... but of course, I can't really explain why anyone should care about that... It's not the international music fans who will watch the show on tv, go to the gigs, buy more barclaycards (or whatever) etc. But still...

What does everyone think of this alternative shortlist from the Guardian?

Obviously better, it has Cooly G on it.

but it has Dodgy on it so it's worse.

But it has Zun Zun Egui on it so it's better again!

How far can we take this good news/bad news game?

but it still has Dodgy on it

The fact that Dodgy still exist, never mind that someone at the Guardian likes their album, I find hilarious rather than offensive.

It's like the reverse noodle vague cheering on M People , this guy is trolling NV by liking Dodgy.

It just overshadows everything on the list.

It's the perfect counterpoint to good music. Grit making the oyster and whatnot.

Where is geir these days

inside an oyster hiding from the 21st century

I'd half-heartedly assumed the Actress/Rustie/Cooly G albums had the profile to get a nod for this, but there's more of a disconnect w/UK stuff the NZ music press covers and Mercury Prize noms than usual.

TBH, the most UK-sounding thing done by someone w/a profile this year has been Geoff Barrow from Portishead & Ben Salisbury's DROKK.

Simon Frith is a British sociomusicologist, and former rock critic. He is the brother of guitarist and composer Fred Frith and neuroscientist Chris Frith.

Dodgy AND The Waterboys? Good fucking grief.

Listened to a couple of Rustie tracks yesterday and thought they were fucking horrible; what am I missing?

Think you might like Cher Lloyd better Nick

That Cooly G record has been criminally ignored, but that's been going on on ILM as well as the wider music press.

Not by me it hasn't. Terrific record.

Dodgy is pretty Dodgy but it is Dave Simpson, Gawd bless him.

Don't get Rustie at all; get a Miami Vice soundtrack album from '85-6 and it's much the same effect.

The Cooly G album is pretty boring I think, loads of it felt like extended intros, there were one or two good moments but I found myself frustrated by its reluctance to coalesce into a groove more often. Rustie is annoying. The Actress record is astonishing in its sound design and aggravating in its inability to put that sound design to good use.

Dave Simpson is consistently the worst music journalist writing for the Guardian and I can only assume they keep him around because he can churn out copy at volume. Or he's their Alan Shearer.

Cosign on Actress. Nice sound but where's the point.

'Playin' Me' got a (glowing) lead review in NME fwiw

the Troyka album is decent, possibly falls slightly into the trap of fiddliness Stew was talking abt up there somewhere

It astonishes me that someone who could rep for something as tedious and dull as Nicholas Jaar could find Cooly G boring, but I guess that's why there's chocolate and vanilla.

I've never really repped for Jaar that much either, his album was pretty dull as well, although I like assorted remixes and some of the early singles. FWIW that Cooly G record has generated significantly more good press than anyone else from that stable except Burial. And way way more than anyone else who sprung up from UK funky.

I feel sorry for the classical journalist they roped in to throw in a token classical pick when he was apparently oblivious to the fact that the Mercury hasn't had a token classical pick for something like ten years. You can hardly blame him for not caring.

(Erm, anyone else who sprung up from UK funky except Katy B, who should have won last year)

How long before the token jazz pick goes? Also wondering whether the Neneh Cherry and The Thing album was ineligible due to nationality (though presumably as a unit they're as British as Anthony and The Johnsons).

Myself, I like both Nicholas Jaar and Cooly G. And Cooly G's cover of "Trouble" is almost as good as Willie Nelson's version of "The Scientist."

Jonathan Harvey's actually the most interesting record in this list; worth going into the quiet bit of HMV to pick up and investigate.

Neneh Cherry and the Thing - the group are Swedish and Neneh herself is of American-Swedish parentage though I've no idea of her current citizenship status. A pity 'cos that's maybe going to be one of my albums of the decade.

TBH arguing about which flavour of broadsheet-friendly electronica is less of an issue than the fact that the only British rapper is Plan B. In 2012.

Where are Rizzle Kicks?

Quite.

The music controller of Radio 2 believes that rap is feral thug riot "call that music" music. Might upset customers in Smythson's.

The Actress record is astonishing in its sound design and aggravating in its inability to put that sound design to good use.

Exactly how I feel. I sat there thinking, this sounds good, it's innovative, I should like this, but nothing stuck.

I think the central diagnosis is something like what Jeff Lynne's dad said to his son in the early days of ELO: "The trouble with your tunes is that they have no tunes."

yeah actress is the ultimate in-one-ear-out-the-other. unbothered

RIP tunes

can't believe kate bush didn't make it on. she slept with a snowman ffs.

I thought maybe neglecting to shortlist Aerial would have shamed them into making amends. Still, she's no Ben Howard.

Yes, each track on the Actress album is pretty static, but I like the sensatiion of being stuck in one place at a time, and the track sequencing offers a meaningful progression.

I quite like the Actress record, it's not hugely sticky, but it is original and has some good moments, I've come back to it a few times after the initial enjoyment which is more than I can say for 99 per cent of new things I listen to.

I can't really see how the Kate Bush album isn't worth a nomination, at the risk of sounding like the Mercury Prize matters.

The other factor with Mercury is the "will the artist turn up?" factor. Presumably they wouldn't expect Kate Bush or Kevin Rowland to come within a mile of the ceremony, hence no 50 Words For Snow or One Day I'm Going To Soar.

or, like Damon Albarn, they didn't submit their albums for consideration.

Did Mala in Cuba come out in time to be considered? It would have been a good choice. Not too scary anyway

The other factor with Mercury is the "will the artist turn up?" factor. Presumably they wouldn't expect Kate Bush or Kevin Rowland to come within a mile of the ceremony

oh yeah, i always forget this. sadly true

hasn't mala in cuba JUST come out? like, last week? it's in the guardian alternative shortlist so presumably in the qualifying period, still seems a bit recent though

The other factor with Mercury is the "will the artist turn up?" factor

Didn't stop Burial being nommed

Burial has an ~exciting mystique~ whereas K Rowland is just a bit difficult

that's probably the rationale anyway

and isn't 'too old' either.
Dexys album is fantastic btw

Eh, too old - Burial could have turned out to be a 53-yr old living in a bungalow in Clacton

Besides, Paul Weller still gets nommed on the reg.

Ah, but he wasn't. Had he been, I doubt he would have been listed. The Mercury people have a way of finding out these things. Particularly when his record company sent in the £150 registration fee for his album to be considered.

(Burial xpost there)

Yeah I could see that it would have blown the game if Burial had sent them a cheque from his Woolwich account with a covering letter on personalised Basildon Bond.

If he had won, there would have been an empty chair on stage, and Jools Holland would have lectured him.

The Barclaycard Mercury Prize exists solely to champion music in the UK

you see, fuck "music in the UK" and fuck the album as the unit of measurement is how i break it down tbh

yeah, i hate it when people insist on listening solely to music from their country or even local scenes when there's better music in the rest of the world. Always felt this way what with growing up in Scotland and the daily record/rest of scots media bumming up shite like deacon blue/love and money/simple minds/hue and cry etc

the lex has always been right w/r/t all this

it's difficult to justify "championing" music based on some nation state unless you get into the whole Brits music INDUSTRY queen's award for exports shite and the Mercury also wants to distance itself from the filthy commerce aspects of popular music so

i guess "what the hell is the point of this tawdry bauble other than lazy friday zings?" is my basic point

There's no point in the MMP apart from trying to sell some units then hoping the winner goes on to be huge so they can say they "broke" the album.
Then when they win The Brits later they can still claim firsties.
NME operates in this vacuum too. "We covered Coldplay and Oasis first"

Once it was the UK and Ireland. I remember Achtung Baby being on the first shortlist.

Former colleague of mine worked for whichever bank sponsored the Mercury when Anthony won; apparently the bank were NOT happy.

― Sick Mouthy (Scik Mouthy)

Antony winning was my favourite Mercury moment, not just because the album is stunning but because it made the Kaiser Chiefs cry when they clearly thought they had won it.

Agree with various people on here saying Dexys, Hot Chip, Cher Lloyd, Beak> and Paul Buchanan should have been on the list.

yeah, i hate it when people insist on listening solely to music from their country or even local scenes when there's better music in the rest of the world. Always felt this way what with growing up in Scotland and the daily record/rest of scots media bumming up shite like deacon blue/love and money/simple minds/hue and cry etc

haha whatever became of Billy Sloan?

Once it was the UK and Ireland. I remember Achtung Baby being on the first shortlist.

And who could possibly forget The Thrills?

Lisa Hannigan too

haha whatever became of Billy Sloan?

I'm not even sure if he has a Sunday Mail column now.

xps

Once it was the UK and Ireland.

Still is, according to Wikipedia. Lisa Hannigan was nominated in 2009.

I had been hitherto successful at forgetting The Thrills.

He's probably pissed off that he was never asked to be a judge. (Remember when he called Kevin Rowland the least talented man ever to have a musical career?)

Perhaps Bill Padley and Andrea Miller are on the panel ("Oh my DEARS Billy MacKenzie is such a NUTCASE here's HIPSWAY")

yeah, i hate it when people insist on listening solely to music from their country or even local scenes when there's better music in the rest of the world. Always felt this way what with growing up in Scotland and the daily record/rest of scots media bumming up shite like deacon blue/love and money/simple minds/hue and cry etc

the lex has always been right w/r/t all this

― VOTE in the 1980's ROCK POLL PLEASE! (Algerian Goalkeeper)

Still goes on. I'd love to see some dissenting voices in the Scottish media on all the god-awful beardy anthemic 'sensitive' and phoney accented jock rock pish like Frightened Rabbit, Meursault, Broken Records, Admiral Fallow et al. The Scottish music blogs love this shite and the press have followed suit. I suppose I could be mischievious and pitch a review of one of these bands to my editor, but I don't want to go in as a hatchet man.

We had the first Scottish Album of the Year awards recently, which had some good stuff in there. Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat a worthy winner, even if it's not my favourite work of either artist. It seemed to be fairly credible as it had labels, promoters, journos etc behind it. Hope it doesn't turn into some boring Mercury type affair, although it's clearly modeled on it.

I quite often see Billy Sloan in my local Waitrose. Also Paul Buchanan. Which is much more exciting. Billy Sloan still has a show on Clyde 2. http://www.clyde2.com/on-air/billy-sloan-sessions/

Was Paul Buchanan in the balloon aisle?

My barber bumps into Paul Buchanan all the time. Get to hear lots of stories. Cant listen to Radio Clyde, hate everything about that station.

there's a Welsh one as well, as of last year. tbqf there really aren't enough albums released to make it a terribly worthwhile exercise but it's not hurting anyone so w/e. I was one of about 100 people on a voting 'panel' and had this awesome album by The Lowland Hundred as my no.1 but I doubt hardly any other fucker heard it

http://sickmouthy.com/2012/09/14/better-winners-for-mercury/

surely it's only a question of time before the English Mercury Prize turns up

Sponsored by whom?

Bristol, Devon and Dorset Music Prize, sponsored by Rodda's Dairy.

London Music Prize 2013 Sponsored by Boris.

Simon Frith is a British sociomusicologist, and former rock critic. He is the brother of guitarist and composer Fred Frith and neuroscientist Chris Frith.

― Ward Fowler, Friday, September 14, 2012 8:15 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Whooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

I have a feeling that this might be something I learn every year when the Mercury Prize rolls round and then forget as soon as it's over. But still.

Oi! Rodda's are CORNISH, Devon-boy.

So nick isn't a cornish indie fuxor then?

That was DELIBERATE!

in every town an album prize

mostly awarded by John Robb

if only Sid James was still alive i think a remake of Carry On Girls set around a bunch of aspiring album prize winners at a run-down seaside resort wd be a winner

catfight between the token jazzers and the hilariously coifed "future of indie sounds surprisingly similar to the past of indie" boyband

With or without Bernard Bresslaw in a bikini?

somebody's immaculately shockwaved hair gets mussed in the ensuing rumble and a minor lounge dubstep dj gets itching powder in his pork pie hat

I HATE Patrick Wolf ("DOOOOON LIT DI CIDDI DIS TROY OUR LUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVV")

Bernard Butler in a bikini.

Who will play the Robin Askwith photographer role?

I am constantly baffled by people not liking Patrick Wolf. I honestly don't know how he's not massive and acclaimed. I think he's amazing.

featuring Kenneth Connor as Simon Frith, Hattie Jacques as Lauren Laverne and the corpse of Ted Ray as Mark Radcliffe

Jack Douglas in an unamusing cameo as Burial

Same reason I didn't like Belouis Some, or the Thompson Twins. Fray Bentos voice and stupid haircut.

What on earth does "Fray Bentos voice" mean?

he hates Uruguayans

It's tonight. I shall be rooting for Sam Lee.

Alt-J are an unstoppable vaguely experimental whiney-voiced juggernaut, by most accounts

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/nov/01/mercury-prize-2012-readers-winner?fb=native&CMP=FBCNETTXT9037&#start-of-comments

clearly no-one gives a shit about this anymore (given the chaos on such threads in previous years !).

including me as i am currently in the west wing drinking red wine and listening to the moody blues at excessive volume.

who wins ?

me.

Alt-J's vaguely experimental indie has had critics comparing them to Radiohead. It also makes them favourites for tonight. But is An Awesome Wave really the sound of British music in 2012? Does it sum up the state of the nation? Actually, it could do – I've not idea what he's singing about half the bloody time.

winner.

nevah heard alt-j, the guardian's blurb on them says "The music is rich and quirky enough to match the imagistic literacy of the lyrics, from the majestic, cinematic sweep of Intro onwards." that somehow does a good job of telling me nothing about how they sound while letting me know that i don't need to hear it.

heard someone on radio 2 saying that the alt-j guy sounded as if he was straight off Downtown Abbey.

ha.

where do you think i got my quote from !

[i.e. i agree, clearly i need to know no more this band ]

xpost

They've even got someone called Thom in the band.

News item on Radio 4 this morning, said they had songs about a photojournalist and a luc besson film and the death of a matador, immediately cut to some young apple-cheeked-sounding twerp warbling "matador matador" and i breathed a huge sigh of relief that i didn't have to waste any time on them.

Remember when Boy In Da Corner won? That was amazing

@IanMartin: Ha ha just saw this photo of some Junior Apprentice hopefuls but they're not, they're the Mercury Prize winners.

http://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/article8274684.ece/ALTERNATES/w460/v2altj-gt.jpg

See, Alt-J are kind of quirky and unexpected but in the blandest and most boring way imaginable. I guess that makes them remarkable. I heard one song by them that I thought was kind of intriguing but I've never been able to get through more than half a song by them since.

I saw Alt-J supporting Wild Beasts a few months back and they were just deathly dull. In all honesty one of the most boring bands I can remember ever seeing.

alt-j is going to win, obviously

― TracerHandVEVO (Tracer Hand), Wednesday, September 12, 2012 3:58 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

God, Wild Beasts are the most boring band in existence. I saw them at Primavera and they may as well have not been there at all.

Wild Beasts feel like they represent some kind of milestone as indie tries to gentrify itself out of existence but then so does most of the stuff on the list really.

xxp lolled at Evan Davis "Alt-J, literally curdled at the Q Awards"

The streak of piss on the right is not wearing a poppy, he must be the 'edgy' one. Could never take this seriously especially after Gomez beat Mezzanine era Massive Attack one year.

"ALT-J"?

ctrl-z

How about bright newcomer Ctrl-Alt-Delete with their debut single "Blue screen of death"?

I like Alt-J!

yeah I kinda like them too!