Wot no 2011 Mercury Music Prize thread?

Katy BJ Harvey

OMG I'm trying to imagine what those two albums mixed would sound like, and a bassheavy urban exploration of WWI british wardead folksongs would be... wow, my favourite thing in the world.

The King Creosote/Jon Hopkins album is excellent.

Seem to be a lot of miffed Tweets at the moment about Wild Beasts missing out yet again.

how are we defining "a lot" here?

Well 'Wild Beats' is currently one of the top trends in the UK:

https://twitter.com/#!/search/%22Wild%20Beasts%22

Mansun were bad enough first time round IMO.

what a disaster for some band i've never heard of

Wild Beasts are an indie rock band fromCLICK

And Wild Beats are what, exactly?

I love Wild Beasts.

anyone who writes a "miffed tweet" or similar about a band not being nominated for the Mercury Prize is a straight up oxygen thief

0% wiggle room on this stance

What about "really should not have been" ?

Adele does not need the money nor the recog.

That's it.

this isn't about money or recognition, it's about choosing the best shit indie record of the year from a diverse field

Hope the Creosote/Hopkins album wins.

I don't listen to much recorded jazz but I'm rather enjoying the Gwilym Simcock album. It's def not the best shit indie record of the year.

There's always a token jazz pick tho

So, the Lex, Noodles, other naysayers - what would be on your lists? Or is it the very idea of a list that offends?

No point wheeling out the old clichés about Mercury for the twelfth time; my views on the listed records are as follows:

Adele – 21
Songs which bluff and barf rather than brood and boil; supposedly personal songs which pull off the skilful trick of telling you absolutely nothing about the artist while making you think you’re learning everything. 4AD might have found a use for her had she been born in 1963.

Anna Calvi - Anna Calvi
Probably not that much deeper than 21 but a far more entertaining listen, mostly because Calvi’s voice and violin seem to be vying with each other to see which can tell the truer story. Rhythms are taut and tested, subject matter (when you can discern it) is alluring. She would have fitted right into 4AD had she been born in 1965.

Elbow - Build A Rocket Boys!
Garvey’s always better when he’s not trying to do “anthems,” quietens down and lets the music do the talking. Better songs than Seldom, more focused performances and overall their best in a decade.

Everything Everything - Man Alive
Coldplay wearing Matching Mole hats. And that’s meant to be a recommendation.

Ghostpoet - Peanut Butter Blues and Melancholy Jam
Nice sense of vulnerability; you never quite know whether the reciter is going to collapse into your arms or fall on you from a height of fifty feet, thus the tension (though rather 1995 in an Earthling way) is sustainable and the songs stagger out of the shelter, not finding the rain that much of a burden.

Gwilym Simcock - Good Days At Schloss Elmau
Efficient John Taylor-type who knows his Mehldau and, once he finds some musicians who can challenge him, might one day be as good a pianist as Mick Pyne was.

James Blake - James Blake
George Michael having just listened to Biosphere, thinking it was Eluvium. That’s also a recommendation.

Katy B - On A Mission
Better pop than the atrocious Jessie J, a feeling of imminent explosion if she can avoid the Ms Dynamite second album/all-round-entertainer trap.

King Creosote & Jon Hopkins - Diamond Mine
They’d like to be Dick Gaughan, like I’d like to be Cecil Taylor.

Metronomy - The English Riviera
1976 Patrick Moraz filtered through This Heat and keep your sombreros on, even in Torquay.

PJ Harvey - Let England Shake
Breaking her decade-long pattern of keep-the-Q-readers-on-side record followed by do-what-I-want record, she finds herself a giggling, petrified echo of Thick As A Brick as The Royal Family and the Poor might have played it. Gillian Welch’s new one is about a hundred times as profound and tries about a hundred times less to be an Event, but this will (Mandy?) more than do.

Tinie Tempah - Disc-Overy
Hood Economics was funny, sharp and non-timewasting, even in its eighty minutes. The first two singles and most of the album’s second half suggest useful ways of getting this mainstream (“Pass Out” in particular takes the Massive Attack template somewhere it’s never wanted to go before), but too much Fraser T Smith and “anthems” and stop-the-Q-readers-from-sticking-to-Seal anti-strategics to be considered a success.

it's the centrality of and disproportionate attention given to this particular list that offends

i agree with pj harvey and katy b being on any shortlist. marsha ambrosius is a sadly predictable omission, the uk music industry seems determined to pretend she doesn't exist despite her us success. i liked the wiley, jamie woon and hyetal from this year too, also lady leshurr if mixtapes count.

of the undeserving on the shortlist - adele is an extraordinarily boring hack, elbow i assume are as dully competent as they've always been, james blake is fucking dreadful, there sadly isn't much great (and a lot very bad) on the tinie tempah album beyond "pass out", nothing metronomy have ever done has made me give the slightest shit about them, i got sent the ghostpoet album a while ago and thought nothing of it on one cursory listen.

You used to love Elbow, didn't you?

Try Ghostpoet again, Lex - I'd be interested to hear what you think. Fair enough re basically the rest of what you said, apart from James Blake, who isn't dreadful, just quite boring.

NB I've already done a complete volte-face since hearing the Katy B album - I think it'll win and that's where my doomed annual tenner's going.

I'm not convinced Katy B is front-to-back great but it's moreso than Tinie or Adele and it would benefit from more exposure so if they want to go populist that's a good bet. My tenner went on PJ just because it's my favourite album of 2011 but I could see them blanching at awarding it to a former winner.

i don't know which out of pj and katy i love more, but i'd rather katy won - i don't know if i want to see the cries of "boring! establishment win!" that will go up if she wins, much as LES deserves any and all plaudits it gets. (and they will go up, she IS so established and the only people who won't have checked LES out by then are surely those who've decided that PJH, generally, is not for them? she really seems to have ended up in a position where either you love her unreservedly and rep for her at all times, or she's just not on your radar at all)

My fiver went on King Creosote (at 22/1).

she really seems to have ended up in a position where either you love her unreservedly and rep for her at all times, or she's just not on your radar at all.

PJ is the UK Bjork, in that sense (and arguably several others).

This is better than most Mercury lists in that it actually has the two best albums of the year on it. Obviously PJ Harvey isn't going to win as she's won before, wouldn't be surprised if Katy B won. Guessing it'll be her or Anna Calvi. Worst case scenario = the useless Everything Everything.

Ghostpoet is really boring, like Roots Manuva when he really isn't trying.

:(

apart from a bit of clumsy-sounding conscious lyrics shtick ghostpoet is the hangover miserabilist album of the year

that is jamie woon for me

(i don't think i can listen to rap when i'm hungover)

bone thugs is decent hangover rap

why is this still a thing

especially with those nominations

dunno it's like the NME thread innit luddite nostalgia gumps

yah true

also it burns up some column space/web pages/minutes of rolling news channels on the night, I guess

(all of which will mention M PEOPLE in snarky fashion)

was in the pub with some nob the night M People won and he was choking on his snakebite and black as i laughed in his face

Who I'd love to see win: Jon Hopkins/King Creosote
Who deserves to win based on the kinds of values Mercury Prize tends to work on: Katy B or Tinie
Who I think has the best chance, realistically: Anna Calvi

Echo the wanting Hopkins and Creosote to win.

PJ Harvey's odds suggest someone knows something; Tinie Tempah has got second to longest odds.

PJ Harvey's odds suggest mug punters like backing people they know

Yeah, that's why "England to win the World Cup" always run way shorter than reality, because people like to bet on the good thing they want to happen.

"Mug punters" know Tinie Tempah better than PJ Harvey, no? I think it's more to do with the bookies paying more attention to reviews than they used to. A few years ago they just went for the biggest indie bands so you could great odds on a critic's favourite like Antony and the Johnsons. Now they factor in critical buzz, and Let England Shake is the best reviewed album on the list, not the biggest name.

i'm mostly amazed that they never factored in reviews before. who did they think was on the panel? (have never bet on this.)

It was a golden age, Lex. Now the odds are pretty much as they should be. If PJ hadn't won before then I think she'd be a shoo-in.

it's so...mercury music prize to have only rewarded her worst album

I feel kind of terrible in that I'm still waiting for PJ Harvey to click with me. I even saw her live this summer and it didn't move me at all. I realise this is kind of a challops on this board though, and I'm sure there'll come a day where she'll come on shuffle at the right time and I'll be all "Hey! This is f'kin great!!". Is it a lyrics thing maybe? I don't tend to pay much attention to lyrics until about the third or fourth time around (at least).

Who are the panel for the prize? Anyone know?

(The odds on PJ are ... not worth placing money on.)

Every time I hear her albums, I always enjoy her diversity and talent, etc.

Every time I see her live on TV, my mind goes "PATTISMITH! PATTISMITH! PATTISMITH! PATTISMITH! PATTISMITH! "...

Peej won.

I've never been able to get into anything by PJ Harvey. Her stuff just sounds cold and dreary to me. I know it's supposed to be good, and I'm interest in the political side of it but she's just never taken me - even when I saw her live in the summer.

huh

have you considered that you might be a zombie

Yeah... I can't get into Elvis Costello either.

when I saw the name Tinie Tempah, I figured it would be another girl rapper like Lady Sov.

Also, calling the album Disc-Overy (ovary?). Has the British public already had their fun with this?

2011 Mercury chat here:

The "ah, fuck it"" 2011 Mercury Music Prize shortlist POLL

dog latin, when was the last time you checked this out:

http://open.spotify.com/track/1f57D54zUH9ajzZ9N7rGE2

still rocks IMO

will give it a proper spin tonight when i get home DJP

Marcello, I think this is the earlier thread.

lulz charlie no 4 really did screw up this year's mercury thread. thankfully it's not a thing to care about anyway, though obv i'm happy with the winner

i pronounce it "tiny tempura" btw and then i eat sushi

and given the britpop shite dog latin has copped to liking i'm quite glad PJH has been spared his taste

not sure King Creosote could be described as Britpop...

Wow at this guy
http://twitter.com/#!/MatthewCainC4

"PJ Harvey wins Mercury for obscure album no-one liked or bought - how predictable! What's wrong with music connecting with lots of people?"

man is wrong. outrageous.

and given the britpop shite dog latin has copped to liking i'm quite glad PJH has been spared his taste

― lex pretend, Wednesday, 7 September 2011 16:34 (25 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

not sure King Creosote could be described as Britpop...

― Neil S, Wednesday, 7 September 2011 16:38 (21 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, c'mon billy. what's king creosote got to do with britpop that pj harvey hasn't?

http://blogs.channel4.com/culture/awards-wind-people/1564

I can actually see the Lex quite liking King Creosote's stuff - there's the Jon Hopkins connection, a certain Waits-ian brooding, and it's extremely well played, sung and produced. Not Britpop at all.

You like it tho, so he won't

man is wrong. outrageous.

― Upt0eleven, Wednesday, 7 September 2011 16:01 (52 minutes ago) Bookmark

Wouldn't care if he was any old Tweeter, but for someone who is the cultural correspondent for a supposedly serious news source to come up with this garbage is not good IMO.

neil s otm

I must say I'm enjoying taking the excuse to go back through all of the old PJ Harvey albums today; I'd forgotten how great Is This Desire? is

http://sickmouthy.com/2011/09/07/why-i’m-pleased-let-england-shake-won-the-mercury-music-prize/

Sucks.

http://wp.me/pHEvR-ad

Sadly, DJP, Victory didn't do much for me either. I'll keep trying with LES but right now I think it's going to be a similar affair as Nick Cave - I should really like it, it has all the elements of stuff I usually love in music, but something's just not clicking. Oh well :-(

I can sympathise with dog latin here. Have been trying with it for some months, and while she's tackling those weighty themes in an interesting way, I'm just not liking the actual sonics of it very much at all.

lol that Spotify link was supposed to be to the entire Dry album, not just that one song

although it does rock, it doesn't rock as much as "Sheela Na Gig" or "Joe"

PJ's last three albums haven't worked for me at all, which is frustrating because I think her first four are brilliant.

I think it's really important to be introduced to the right album of hers at the right time in your life. For me, it was Rid of Me. I've rarely been so blown away by an album in my life. I needed to hear that female anger, longing, and intensity that had been missing from my record collection.

While I haven't LOVED every album of hers immediately, I have found something worthwhile on every one. To Bring You My Love is still my favorite and the one I play the most, but I thought LES was brilliant from the get-go and, especially given the subject matter, a worthy winner.

I think that stating that her last few albums didn't do it for me at all was too strongly worded. I definitely still respect her as an artist - I just wish I could get into them like her earlier albums. Maybe more effort on my part is required.

I listened to all of her albums in chronological order yesterday (thx Spotify!), it was really interesting listening to the evolution of her sound

I think it's really important to be introduced to the right album of hers at the right time in your life. For me, it was Rid of Me. I've rarely been so blown away by an album in my life. I needed to hear that female anger, longing, and intensity that had been missing from my record collection.

― thinveneer, Thursday, 8 September 2011 13:42 (1 hour ago) Bookmark

I doubt this somehow, but might the fact I grew up around an awful lot of female angst be a barrier in my appreciation of PJ Harvey?

I didn't mean that Rid of Me is the right place for everyone to start. I meant that different albums might be the "ideal" place for a person to get drawn in, and it's great if you're lucky enough to start with that album.

Ugh - not making sense today. On painkillers. Forgive me.

i'm coming off cigs at the moment so my posts aren't exactly being reined in either.