Mercury Prize 2019 Shortlist – The Poll

tbh i feel like Nao is the most in my pleasure dome of all these right now

awards are still ridiculous and the Mookury is more terrible than most tho obv

I mean when I saw him at Glastonbury he was clearly completely baked and onstage in his pants and had to request some socks because the stage was too hot. Then spent half the set trying to instigate a moshpit and nicking bits of clothing from the crowd. Like if you were there for the music alone you'd probably have felt a bit short changed but it was impossible not to love it in the moment.

That stuff doesn't come across in the press at all as they've clearly decided to make him into the new Plan B.

his lyrics don't seem to bear that nonsense out tho, there's way more personal stuff than "pols and rich people are bad" which is also totally true and fine

Dave doesn't seem to get much ILM love (I recall being the lone voter for "Question Time", which I ranked first in the 2017 tracks poll), but I think he's excellent.

The Slowthai album must be the first Mercury nominated album to include a song about peeing on kitchen equipment, right?

Yes, although one could make a strong case for Gomez' 'Bring It On' sounding like someone peeing on kitchen equipment.

"I was blind, now I can see - You made a reliever, out of me.."

A+

cate le bon, no contest. best record of the year

^^^^^ otm

not familiar with most of these; surprised Calvi is there, I feel like that came out over a year ago but maybe it just slipped in under the deadline? Of the ones I am familiar with it's either that or Cate Le Bon.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

still the Cate Le Bon even though it didn't really stick with me

well, more like I didn't stick with it, it's a great record

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Only just listened to it yesterday but that SEED Ensemble album is excellent

Black Midi were fucking great there. Never heard of them before.

Apparently Slowthai held up a bloodied decapitated Boris Johnson head and shouted "fuck Boris" repeatedly?

oh, is this not live? yes I thought there was a weird edit there.

Man, Cate's performance is getting slammed all over Twitter. Was she really that bad?

pretty bad tbh.

Chuffed it went to who it went to.

No way, cate le Bon was a class act, there were a few odd sound rumbles but I think they were deliberate.

I like CLB well enough but her vocal was awful. It was quite possibly related to sound and/or rehearsal issues related to having 10 bands play in a very short space of time.

I thought overall that was the best music of any Mercury I can ever remember.

I haven't seen any ceremony footage but yeah this looks like a really strong list of albums to me (slowthai is my no. 2 of the year).

Slowthai's "fuck Boris" seems to have been reinstated on the iPlayer version of his performance.

Yeah, a good selection.

Cate le bon clearly off, bad sound foldback obv.

Nobody terrible! How about that?

Another decent list this year so far (not heard the Steve Lamacq championed band though)

The Mercury Prize 2020: a thread 👇

— BBC Radio 6 Music (@BBC6Music) July 23, 2020

was rooting for Anna Meredith right up until How I'm Feeling Now dropped

Love the fact she just said she was going for an Underworld vibe on Visions

GAZ COOMBES

No Jessie Ware then

Ware might be 12th

Anyway I'm excited for everyone having to listen to Sports Team again

They just announced that one xp

I suppose I'd best give Porridge Radio a try as well but the Mercury Prize is notoriously good at promoting really awful guitar bands (as opposed to good ones, which do exist, contrary to ILM consensus)

I really like the Porridge Radio album. Reminds me a lot of Goat Girl

It's pretty good but it feels sort of inconsequential, like "why this, now?"

That's a decent list all in all though, they should give it to Moses Boyd but I'm guessing it goes to Michael Kiwanuka.

Mercury Prize 2020 Shortlist – The Poll