Mercurial (lack of) talents

Hear ye! Hear ye!

Within the past couple of hours, the nominations for the Mercury prize (or the poor man’s Shortlist prize, if you like) have been announced; anyone who has read my past blogs on the subject will know that I often adopt the role of grizzled old cynic when it comes to the names making it onto the list, but in some ways the (again lamentable) shortlist for this year’s prize is worse because it confirms the view (held not only by myself) that the Mercury prize is in terminal decline (personally, it also highlights the fact that British music is in a poorer state of health than its counterparts in North America, France, Sweden and Germany, but that’s a topic for another blog altogether.)

The first thing one notices is the whiff of stale familiarity about the whole event, given that this year’s list features 2 former winners of the prize (in the form of Dizzee Rascal and the Arctic Monkeys, the latter being last year’s winners, no less), with even Amy Winehouse being a past nominee. The rest of the list reads very much like an NME/Radio 1 playlist, with some very mediocre indie albums (The Young Knives and Arctic Monkeys excepted) managing to garner a place on what is supposedly Britain’s premier musical showcase; the fact that a woefully average Libertines tribute band like The View can make the list rather says it all, as does the presence of the immensely irritating Jamie T (who, along with fellow Mockney troubadours Lily Allen, Kate Nash and Jack Peñate, was satirised quite superbly in the track “LDN is a victim”, whose title is a fusion of Allen’s “LDN” and Nash’s “Caroline’s a victim”.) As I have alluded to in past blogs, the Mercury prize was initially set up to recognize British music as a whole, and ought to return to this ideal; even as someone who was grew up as an indie kid (and who still listens to quite a bit of indie), the fact that the Merucry prize is focusing solely on indie music is a damning indictment not only of the narrow, commercial view of British music that the Mercury’s seem to be increasingly taking, but also how indie (or, rather, “Topshop indie”, as the current indie scene bears little resemblance to the genre’s outsider roots) has become the new mainstream.

It’s probably worth drawing attention not only to the gross excess of mediocre indie acts making the list, but also the many genres that were overlooked in compiling the list, given that only 1 jazz group (Basquiat Strings) and 1 folk act (Fionn Regan, an Irish born/Brighton-based singer-songwriter) made it onto the list (though Bat for Lashes, from what little I’ve heard of them do display some folky, Kate Bush-like qualities.) Add to that the fact that Maps is probably the closest the list gets to a dance act (though I’m told that Maps’ particular brand of miserablist electronic bears more of a comparison to My Bloody Valentine than The Chemical Brothers, for instance; apologies for once again betraying my ignorance on the subject, but I have yet to hear any of their/his stuff, even though I’m looking to get hold of some downloads to better inform myself) and Dizzee Rascal is the closest thing to a hip-hop nominee, and it all makes for depressing reading.

Another thing that is painfully obvious upon perusing the list is that, sadly, like much of the rest of the press, the Mercury panel have fallen hook, line and sinker for Nu Rave, resulting in the frankly disastrous nomination of Klaxons (surely responsible for the worst album released by anyone from any country this year), as well as the presence of New Young Pony Club, a band I actually quite liked when they first emerged but have since gone off, not least because the formula that worked well on individual tracks like “Ice Cream” was stretched over an entire album, which is never a good idea.

Oh well, it’s probably best to stop ranting at this point and finish off with a few closing thoughts: my tip to win the award would be Amy Winehouse, largely because the other obvious favourites (Dizzee Rascal and Arctic Monkeys) have already won the award, with Bat for Lashes being my tip as a dark horse. As ever, your thoughts on who will/should win the award, as well as who should not have made the list that did (which I won’t go over again) and who should have made the list that didn’t (for me, only the Long Blondes really spring to mind, as my knowledge of modern folk and jazz is pretty poor, and most British dance music has been poor this year), will be welcomed with open arms.

See you la-la-later,
Prof.