WORSTEST ALBUM TO WIN MERCURY MUSICS PRIZE!

M People.

Albums on this list, irregardless of quality, that haven't aged really really badly:

1993 Suede - Suede
2001 PJ Harvey - Songs From The City, Stories From The Sea
And the most recent four.

'I Am The Bird Now' is probably the one i'd least enjoy listening to.

Talvin Singh's probably is the worst on here, but voting for it is a bit like pushing a guy in a wheelchair down the stairs.

'OK' is OK, should've been entirely instrumental tho perhaps.

I Am A Bird Now is one of the one's I'd MOST enjoy listening to now!

Suede were really quite good before they became awful.

Gomez, by a longer and longer stretch the more I think about it

hang on yeah there is NO DOUBT it's gomez!!!

despite the fact that a few records on that list aren't particularly good, m people stands out like a sore thumb

Would rather hear Gomez than Heather Small, throat singer extraordinaire.

I has to vote Gomez just for "Whippin Piccalili" even tho some of the other tracks on that album are not objectionable. Still, it's the principle that counts. A Little Deeper's only got about 3 good songs on it, but wins out by virtue of Not Being Gomez. The Talvin Singh is uniformly pleasant, so trumps both.

The M People is chockah with great singles fuck off if you hate adult fun.

dizzee still amazing, still listen to it on the regular. portishead probably still amazing but haven't dug it out in an age. pj harvey v good but when i want to listen to pj these days, it's never this album. ms dynamite - the singles are still brilliant. m people too.

the rest can fuck off really.

I predict a certain teenage rapscallion is going to be along in a minute to add CONTENT to this thread.

MALCONTENT

Who were the Gomez fans, anyways? The NME and Melody Maker held them in the same contempt as Shed Seven, they'd have been a bit outre for Q, I can't remember them tearing up the Evening Session or Peel... who was actually "enjoying" their unique bland of indie-blues mediocrity?

Dude from Gomez is on "Last Stop: This Town" by Eels, which is probably a better song than anything on any of these albums.

Except maybe that Roni Size song about paper.

I haven't heard the Talvin Singh album, but I can't imagine it wouldn't be bad.

i'd still rather listen to those nerdy hacks in gomez than the likes of 'moving on up'

Also Elegant Slumming is great just for all the corny indie fuxxors who had apopleptic fits whining to me about it winning.

who will win it this year? due a curveball winner but don't know of anything that fits that bill really. surely not Patrick Wolf...

Also Elegant Slumming is great just for all the corny indie fuxxors who had apopleptic fits whining to me about it winning.

You are Hannah Pool and I claim my five pounds.

Luckily I've never heard Gomez, so that I can vote BDBoy.

A friend's brother was in G0mez and she asked me the week before the Mercury if I thought they'd win, cos I'd won plenty on Roni the year before. I made some polite noises about it being a wide open field that year, which it was, really. I figure the judges played darts to decide the winner or sump'n.

who will win it this year? due a curveball winner but don't know of anything that fits that bill really. surely not Patrick Wolf...

Klaxons.

badly drawn boy is probably the second worst yeah. looked like a tramp, sounded like a tramp. fucking buskers.

<i>i'd still rather listen to those nerdy hacks in gomez than the likes of 'moving on up'</i>

'moving on up' is a GREAT SONG. heather small's voice could be offputting but during the moments when the backing singers drowned her out, ie the choruses, m people were v good indeed.

Gomez's fanbase confuses me. They supported Embrace in 1997. In Our Gun's quite a good album, lots of good ideas put together pretty well.

Klaxons no way. Form suggests a non-schmindie winner this year.

Klaxons will be most likely be favourites tho

Yeah, we're due a dance / urban / pop winner this year.

Klaxons are "technically" "dance".

it really is time for BDB to take off that stupid Benny hat. far more offensive than anything Jay K ever sported.

The only urban album I can think of that'd get nominated is Wiley.

Dizzee?

Definite nominees: Klaxons, Long Blondes, Patrick Wolf, probably Cocker.

Simian Mobile Disco? MIA?

Simian Mobile Disco is a good shout actually. 4/5 in Q.

When does Radiohead's album drop? I figure the judges are aching to give it to them eventually.

I've never heard the Talvin Singh which I can very much imagine hating. So it's Ms. Dynamite for me. Best is M People.

Yeah? It's a fucking dreadful record.

Travis nominated just to take the piss.

SMD, that is.

I know you guys wont agree, but I'd love Patrick Wolf to win. Except that it would destroy his career.

they could give it to a folk/classical/jazz album this year lol

Mika wins in shock insider betting coup.

predicted 07 noms:
The Twang
Paul McCartney
Dizzee Rascal
Mark Ronson
Arctic Monkeys
Kaiser Chiefs
Editors
Klaxons
MIA
Patrick Wolf
Mika
jazzist

Spidey sense says Ronson has an each-way chance, also Amy Winehouse? Ronson would walk this poll if he was on it.

Jarvis and SMD in place of Macca and MIA maybe

also token Classicals and Folks unless Patrick bleedin' Wolf counts as Folk. Scott Walker is technically "American" isn't he?

i can only remember the select review of 'jilted', which was saying 'haters still think of howlett as a cheesy quaver but ffs this shits all over everything lamestains'. which was otm but -- i reckon -- a contrarian opinion. this was the year of SAW and 'snivilisation' and 'haunted dancehall'.

Its not that they needed a non-indie record to win. they needed a non-student record to win

ha, difference being?

no £50 man in those days. only students and recent grads liked Blur, Suede and Primal Scream back then.

£50 man would have been buying dire straits and sting then no? i think Filey is 8080TM as much as prodigy are dance they were still much loved by the nme/maker/select axis no? m people represent a break from that consensus.

£50 was a lot of green in those days.

although music was more expensive.

£50 man would have been buying dire straits and sting then no?

no.

as much as prodigy are dance they were still much loved by the nme/maker/select axis no? m people represent a break from that consensus.

yeahbut nme/mm, and even select, were still basically indie in 1994. mercury's constituency was not identical with that world at all. it's for people --and not students so mmuch -- who want an alternative to the britannia music prize -- so they can pick up the hot jams without having to keep up with these matters.

that's what i'm saying they had to make a move to differentiate themselves. without m people winning the criticism could have been that the award was no different than the nme year end poll or whatevs. q was going in the early nineties wasn't it. what would £50 man be buying to before bluasis hit?

Someone find the NME 1994 list.

I suspect, if one album 'broke' dance to indie kids, it was Jilted Generation.

um screamdelica? though i am now refuting what i said upthread. gateway drug?

what would £50 man be buying to before bluasis hit?

this is a key question because in a way mercury helped invent the £50 bloke. yer dire straits/sting/phil collins listeners have the income of the £50 but they couldn't have given a fuck about appearing vaguely edgy by owning the mark ronson or dizzee rascal album. the £50 bloke is tied up with 'middle youth'.

£50 man would have been buying dire straits and sting then no?

no.

actually yes, pretty much. the equivalent stereotype would've still been buying rock has-beens like that.

Kevin appears to have confused "homosexuals" with "event planners putting on a motivational conference for industrial lighting salesmen"

I didn't use the word "homosexuals" nor would I ever. But hey - thanx for the stimulating conversation.

not dire straits. but what i'm saying is no-one thought sting was cool; £50 bloke *does* think he's a tiny little bit cool.

xpost

lol u just did lol11!!

hands up anyone who actually knows a '£50 man' anyway (and do your parents own any of the winning albums from this decade?)

"£50 strawman"

when i say £50 man i just mean 'word readers' basically. never met one -- just imagining their ideal reader.

Guess which artists on the winners list my Mum is most likely to listen to by a MASSIVE distance. Beings with M.

I don't think my Dad would like any of them much, POSSIBLY Gomez, POSSIBLY some of the Franz.

lolrents

<i>um screamdelica? though i am now refuting what i said upthread. gateway drug?</i>

That's rock guys appropriating dance as psychedelia. Prodigy came straight out of rave culture, straight from Charlie, and they dropped this; it's total dance, despite the occasional guitars from Mr Butt. Half my friends didn't understand it AT ALL. It was the year Cobain died and they were getting into Sonic Youth and Metallica. This is not rock songs or instrumentals with a dance sheen.

i think togtq's ideas about cool and middle youth are really important. this list possibly more so than any rave or britpop narrative shows the impulse for gentrification in the 90s. the industries desire to control and market whilst retaining the "cred". was this a 90s thing? this michael bracewell about the 90s book i read argued something very similar, though i can't quite rememberit exaclty.

Didn't think Gizz Butt was on this one? Also re:

yeahbut nme/mm, and even select, were still basically indie in 1994. mercury's constituency was not identical with that world at all.

All of those had decent sized dance sections and there was generally much more coverage of (established) dance acts than there is now. Also I think the Mercury was still finding its feet in 94, its third year - I dunno if people really knew what it was sposed to be about (do they now?)

Also I think the Mercury was still finding its feet in 94, its third year - I dunno if people really knew what it was sposed to be about (do they now?)

-- DJ Mencap, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 4:03 PM (27 seconds ago) Bookmark Link

yeah this is key. tbh '94 was the first year i heard of it, mainly because of all the fuss about blur Not Winning in the nme.

since then everything has sort of got 'closer together' -- nme, britannia, mercury, the broadsheets.

I'm sure Gizz Butt's on one track on JG.

the mercuries possibly represent an industry fight back, now won. they show that the suits didn't want to be taken by suprise again, that whatever hip new yoof culture appeared they'd be cool with it, cos y know they are cool dudes.

i would count myself as a 50 quid bloke in the original sense, not in the 'fostered by Word magazine sense.

i bought word early on, but it settled down v quickly into Mojo lite.

Did the lighthouse family ever get nominated? my god they were shit.

actually they...no, i can't do it this time.

Did the lighthouse family ever get nominated? my god they were shit.

wait until you hear the indie band featuring one of the lighthouse family : Orange Lights

The Orange Lights feature vocalist Jason Hart (formerly lead guitarist with Spiritualized) and keyboard player Paul Tucker (songwriter, one-half of The Lighthouse Family). The Single and the album was produced by Ken Nelson (all three Coldplay albums), Chris Potter (The Verve's "Urban Hymns").

so dreary it has to be heard to be believed.

Yeah, I got emails about them, and studiously deleted.

The Lighthouse Family guy has a pretty good voice. Shame he sings such bland turgid dreck with it. Surely they can't have ever been nominated, not that I care enough to google it.

I had the Orange Lights album (it sucked) but failed to notice either ex-member connection. I've never heard of Jason Hart either, he's just a session musician I guess?

press release quote :
"the time’s right for us. people are fed up with mumbling indie bands. we are all about big tunes you can sing your heart out to."
paul tucker, the orange lights

had me chuckling for many an hour that particular gem.
no doubt in 6 months the Snow Patrol-lite music will be dominating the Radio 2 playlist and we'll all wish we'd kept the cardboard cutout promos (which were very reminiscent of the Athlete debut album promo - should have seen the signs !)

I just rescued it from the dump pile just because of you - I hope you're proud

my dump pile was 'archived' a few weeks ago, so it's too late for me to follow your bravery.

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

Elegant Slumming indeed

ilm in hating inoffenive pop soul more than turgid blues rock shock

"Bring It On", while no blues rock will ever by my favourite music, has a great production, which brings it way above what it would have been otherwise.

And as for M People, they are the weirdest thing on the list, but I find them way more listenable than Dizzee Rascal anyway.

Geir and Dizzee both have "FUCK THA WORLD" style demeanours tempered with their obvious desire to be cuddly ambassadors of the mainstream.

Bought: 5 (Dizzee most recent, tho only bought Screamadelica a couple of months back)
Downloaded: 2 (PJ, Franz)
Acquired promo: 2 (Singh, Gomez - both were sold on)

The "winner" = more proof that England is on another planet (the heterosexual part, that is).

Maybe you should invade us.

"Westerners should be conscious of the superiority of our civilization, which consists of a value system that has given people widespread prosperity in those countries that embrace it, and guarantees respect for human rights and religion. This respect certainly does not exist in Islamic countries."

i'm glad m people won/lost because i've been listening to some of their singles and they're fucken shit

Still irked at the Gomez/Arctic Monkeys imbalance. Gomez at least showed some ingenuity in their song-structures and instrumentation. I think they're being sold short here; they should be at least two or three places lower. AM's have absolutely nothing to recommend them.

BEST GREEK/BRITISH INDIE PONTIFICATOR POLL:

* L0uis J@gger
* Alexis Petridish
* Alex Kapranos

Maybe you should invade us.

Invading heterosexual men is one of my favorite pastimes. Thanx for the invite.

i think in this case "thanx but no thanx" would be more apt