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.

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!