What is the Mercury Prize?

Just imagine if Actress won the Mercury prize, jesus....

critically acclaimed producer wins "credible" music prize would not be that astonishing

not enough clear world music influences i reckon.

The shortlist could have been better.

But it also could have been a lot worse.

Kate Tempest, I think, works better as a poet than as a rapper.

Two jazz nominations and wouldn’t it be nice if – for once – one of them won?

East India Youth is great although I felt there were a few too many instrumentals on the album whereas I'd heard the majority of the song-based tracks on the preceding Hostel EP. Still a good record though and well worth seeing live in the right context.

Yeah the Kate Tempest album is interesting but selling her as a rap artist is largely going to invite derision and confusion I fear. I definitely think of her as a performance poet who is influenced by rap and it's certainly a better way to approach that album in the first instance.

I like the production on the Young Fathers record (esp. the Knife-y backing on "Get Up") but the rapping is really dodgy. Cod-profundity wrapped in "clever" gibberish. Who was it that said something like: alliteration is the last refuge of the person with nothing to say?

Siegfried Sassoon

^actual lols.

I was kind of skeptical while listening to the Kate Tempest album until I hit "Lonely Daze", which is flat-out fantastic and made the previous songs click into place for me.

can see why she would want to avoid the "a bit shit" connotations of "performance poet"

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/mercury-music-prize-2014-who-should-win-from-ed-sheeran-to-jake-bugg-9714800.html

Andy Gill's article seems to have a somewhat different list to the official.

(I was pondering what was happening to Roy Harper's case, which was supposed to have been heard in August, but nothing has been stated it seems)

Is this meant to be an alternative list? Cos he doesn't say that anywhere. And the list's half the same as the official one? In know The Independent's gone rapidly down hill in terms of fact checking and quality and stuff, but this is just... weird?

"The Independent’s chief rock critic makes his own nominations"

Aha! I didn't read that cos it was under a picture of Ed Sheeran.

Tempest:
Yeah. "Lonely Daze" is pretty fantastic. Maybe track of the year for me.
The album lyrics as a whole are fantastic too. Concept album in the best sense.

xp agree it's a dumb list though - lots of the same things as the official, some of the fringe stuff switched for more populist fare plus a few random folky choices. thanks for saving music andy!

lj as an openly anticon man, have u heard the young fathers lp

― Nothing less than the Spirit of the Age (nakhchivan), Wednesday, September 10, 2014 9:55 PM (1 month ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol

i suppose i'll 'have to' now

Listening on Spotify. I like it.

undie, the sound of 2014

Young Fathers are ace. Best thing to come out of Scotland for years. They won the Scottish Album of the Year in June with Tape Two, their 2013 EP, shielding the prize from shit like Biffy Clyro and Frightened Rabbit.

nah that was rly boring sry

thought the twilight sad were the scottish indie band to keep an eye on ;)

if you like beardy sentimental gunge rock

haw

probably otm, except they also started ripping off portishead on the last one

Maybe, i just dismiss this rubbish without listening nowadays. Scottish music is the worst: Frightened Rabbit, Admiral Fallow, Fake Major, Twin Atlantic, French Wives, Mersault... there are thousands of bands that sound like this up here, all getting 5-star reviews from The Skinny.

and a hyperbolic 35-post thread on drownedinsound.com

It's a real shame that the Twilight Sad are lumped in with the rest of that scene because they're much better than their contemporaries.

Is The Twilight Sad album any good? I was kinda put off by the huge DiS 10/10 masterpiece and associated articles histrionics

Also wonder what kind of sales bump Young Fathers will get as it appears they've only sold 2,500 copies of their LP pre-award

Is The Twilight Sad album any good? I was kinda put off by the huge DiS 10/10 masterpiece and associated articles histrionics

I just listened to about three songs off it (private session of course) because of boxedjoy's complaint that I'd unfairly lumped them in with the other Scottish gits. To be fair, it wasn't as bad as a lot of them. It just sounds like The National/Interpol/Editors kinda stuff - pure porridge music, but a lot of people like that.

I quite liked the first twilight Sad album. Produced by Peter Katis, who did a couple of National albums. Very strong Scottish accent and lyrics about being a miserable adolescent, which I found unusually affecting, plus great big swirls of guitar.

Young Fathers are the MMP nominees that I most wanted to hear out of the ones I hadn't heard.

First Twilight Sad album miles and miles better than The National and suchlike. Will have to hear this new one to judge it.

To paraphrase a recent Telegraph article about the Mercury - why does so much British music sound like it was made as part of some community centre youth project?

nanny state socialism

Because Bruce Springsteen is American.

I hate all that beardy boo-hoo Scottish indie-rock pish too. It's just as well there's lots of other stuff going on up here. Quite nice to see YF win in that respect, although it could be argued they're the hip-hop equivalent with their earnest emo soul. That's a bit of a glib analogy though. Some nice tunes, if not the greatest rappers - Hector Bizerk and Loki are much stronger in that respect.
High time Alasdair Roberts was nominated for the Mercury - mind you, he didn't even make the Scottish Album of the Year longlist, thanks to everyone voting for dreary bawbags like Frabbit, Biffy and Twin Atlantic.

I can't imagine anything called 'The Twilight Sad' possibly being good.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2014/oct/29/quarter-of-mercury-prize-finalists-sold-under-1000-albums-since-nomination

just got a mailshot thing from Big Dada which mentioned the award in a kind of afterthought way, after hyping up the new Wiley album. good attitude tbh

I haven't actually heard the new Twilight Sad album yet so I can't comment on it, but so far they've been very strong even if their debut stands heads and shoulders above the rest.

a new fucking low

finally some recognition for ed sheeran

the ceremony should be richard dawson gunging the entire shortlist* and voting panel get-your-own-back-style then running off with the trophy

*stormzy and j hus exempted

guys guys guys

you're right, you're right

leave the Mercury outrage to that angry young firebrand Petridis. Tbh I hope Sheeran wins it!

Blossoms?? what the f

vera lynn snubbed again, a travesty

sorry, dame vera lynn

(Not saying that the jazz albums are 'token' nominees, but they never seem to win)

I thought the Binker and Moses alb was pretty fab as well, in fact UK jazz is pretty good at the moment - but these clowns never seem to have more than one token jazz nom.

The Wolf Alice record is fucking awesome.

words i never expected to see in that configuration, vol 276

The fact that British jazz is actually fashionable right now (look at the Friday on this year's Field Day lineup if you don't believe me) suggests it might actually win for once.

Hopefully so, Matt!

The Independent headline :

The Mercury Prize is still struggling to acknowledges innovative UK music

none of these artists aren't English

The Wolf Alice record is fucking awesome.

― how's life, Thursday, July 26, 2018 6:08 AM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

otm

The jazz terrorists have won.