mercury music prize: 2007

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?!

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