July 18th, 2006
Muse and no Moz, Eraser and no Aerial
So the 2006 Mercury prize shortlist has been announced and so begins the usual round of “I-can’t-believe-they
-left-that-off” (the Morrissey album, Tunng’s album, Adem’s Love and other Planets, Kate Bush’s Aerial) and the “well-I- wouldn’t-have-picked-that” grumbling (see Thom Yorke, Muse and Sway.
The list also includes Arctic Monkeys (why not The Kooks instead?), Editors, Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan, Richard Hawley, Zoe Rahman, Lou Rhodes and Scritti Politti. I’m no Mercury judge, but the two best albums on the list have to be Hot Chip’s The Warning and The Guillemots’ Through the Windowpane.
It’s a surprise that Lily Allen hasn’t been included. As catchy as the album is, it feels like it’s been marketed to within an inch of its life after some marketing monkey announced: “Do you know what will sell tons? A female Mike Skinner.”
The winner will be announced in September.
July 18th, 2006 at 5:51 pm
The Isobel Campbell and Mark Lanegan album is excellent. I haven’t heard much of the others, don’t tend to buy that many albums anymore.
July 18th, 2006 at 6:17 pm
Donal, that’s a really nice album too. Would definitely recommend The Guillemots and - although they’re not on the list - the lovely folk of Tunng too.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:02 pm
lily allen album is brilliant - she’s smart and so is the album, a pity so many people are put off by the hype and bullshit.
July 18th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
I like lots of things about the Lily Allen album, some of it is very funny and I can see a lot of girls relating to it.
The whole myspace discovery thing is getting a bit jaded and it’s surprising how quickly mainstream labels hijacked it for PR.
Apparently Ms. Allen was asked to join the original Sugababes six years ago - when she was just 15.
July 18th, 2006 at 8:53 pm
tunng is lovely alright! these days i put very little faith in the MMP list (i mean the editors for god sake!)my vote goes to hot chip, but i reckon the monkeys will probably get it. maybe the lily allen album is too recent to be included? im not sure of the time-frame for the included albums (it feels like that bloody editors album has been out for a good two years!)
July 18th, 2006 at 9:24 pm
> The whole myspace discovery thing is getting a bit jaded and it’s surprising how
> quickly mainstream labels hijacked it for PR.
i’m more surprised how hacks are still taken in by it. why are music writers so damn gullible?
July 18th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Utterly agree, Hot Chip album is great as is the Guillemots’. But why on earth isn’t Belle & Sebastian’s “The Life Pursuit” on this list?
July 19th, 2006 at 9:20 am
“i’m more surprised how hacks are still taken in by it. why are music writers so damn gullible?”
God knows, but did you see how Alan ‘Creation Records’ McGee got duped? He fell for the hype of a band called Hope Against Hope and booked them for a gig fter hearing all about their prolific myspace rise.
Except of course, that it was all part of a big fib. The band were totally fictitious, created by Q magazine to make a point about the cachet of being a myspace underground darling and how the media, promoters and labels are exploiting myspace for PR purposes.