mercury music prize: 2007

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.