mercury music prize: 2007

I really liked the Klaxons singles but the album got old. I'm guessing their popularity peaked already. Winehouse has talent but material on album is spotty. Aside from Milanese, the UK stuff I've been enjoying is pretty poppy. Just saw Maxïmo Park on Monday, and it was far, far more enjoyable than my Pitchfork experience. Very high energy, everyone singing along.

Milanese - Extend
Maxïmo Park - Our Earthly Pleasures
The Rakes - Ten New Messages
Field Music - Tones Of Town
Good Shoes - Think Before You Speak
Noisettes - What's The Time Mr. Wolf?
The Twilight Sad - Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters

Judges, nicked from elsewhere:

Simon Frith - music author/Professor of Music at University of Edinburgh
Charles Hazlewood - conductor and broadcaster on Radio 2, Radio 3 and BBC 4
Lauren Laverne - broadcaster, The Culture Show and Channel 4’s Transmission
Conor McNicholas - Editor of NME
George Ergatoudis - Head of Music, Radio 1
Dean Jackson – Presenter The Beat BBC Nottingham
Arwa Haider - Music Editor, Metro/Front Row contributor
Zoe Rahman - jazz musician
Mark Findlay - Head of Music, GCAP’s The One Network
Jude Rogers - Reviews Editor, Word Magazine/New Statesman/The Guardian

Not that anyone here might have any vested interests... No sir, Conor and George.

anyone had a flutter? do you usually?

like most people on here i guess, i've been right about half the time with the winners over the years, and in the talvin singh / pj harvey years could have won a flippin fortune! but i've never bet on it.

how's about you guys?

I'm currently thinking Bat For Lashes, but 5/2 (joint favourite with Amy Winehouse) isn't really worth it*. If Winehouse can pull off a massive recovery she might win, maybe all her gig-cancelling is to try and lengthen her odds?

current odds from Bet365:
Amy Winehouse - Back to Black 5/2
Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold 5/2
Jamie T - Panic Prevention 3/1
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future 9/1
Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare 9/1
Fionn Regan - The End of History 10/1
Maps - We Can Create 14/1
The View - Hats off to the Buskers 22/1
New Young Pony Club - Fantastic Playroom 25/1
The Young Knives - Voices of Animals and Men 28/1
Dizzee Rascal - Maths and English 40/1
Basquiat Strings with Seb Rochford - Basquiat Strings 40/1

*I know nothing about betting.

Maps is a good bet.

That Bat for Lashes album is terrible.

It's better than the Maps album.

they're both very bad albums

Not heard the Maps. That NYPC album is so unbelievably boring. And how did they pick the wrong Seb Rochford record? I bet Skinny Grin wasn't even entered bcz of V2 meltdown.

Who is Fionn Regan?

I quite like the Bat For Lashes song with the video with the bikes. I don't actually like any of these albums, (although I haven't heard Regan, Young Knives or Basquiat - and that's the only one I'd like to hear, I think).

Who is Fionn Regan?

Irishy singer-songwriter type.

The Basquiat is nice, aye, a good record, but Skinny Grin is some other-level evenmt stuff, there. If they'd picked that and had the guts to make it win they'd have saved the world from nuclear holocaust.

9/1 for the arctic monkeys?! that's nuts surely?

klaxons down to £3 in sainsburys. woolworths not stocking mia's kala.

same band winning two years in a row damaging credibility further is the fear there (xp)

Nothing says credibility like Bat for fucking Lashes

Whinehouse to win shurely.

Of course the Pony Club piss all over the rest of them from a great height, but whatever.

BAN SEEKALTROUTE

tonight.

Bat For Lashes - Fur and Gold 7/4
Jamie T - Panic Prevention 3/1
Amy Winehouse - Back To Black 10/3
Klaxons - Myths of the Near Future 9/1
Maps (pictured) - We Can Create 12/1
Source: Ladbrokes

my god nypc are the worst shit ever.

worse than jamie t???

It's so hard to decide on the worst this year. So many different ways to be bad. Still going for Bat for Lashes as the lousiest though.

I think The Klaxons may be my fave album out of them.

there's a BAT FOR LASHES track i heard that has a dance-y beat. is there just that one or are there more?

Anyone but Jamie T.

Ladbrokes have now closed the books on Bat for Lashes winning the Mercury following another giant wager being put on her to win this morning.

apprntly.

I actually listened to the Bat for Lashes album for the first time at the weekend - the opening track made me think the record was going to be awesome and Bjorkish and I remember being incredibly disappointed when it actually went somewhere rather dull.

well strike me dumb

Best shot in the two minutes I saw was Dizzee looking bored and pissed off and resigned to losing.

New Young Pony Club is fantastic. The only other one I've heard is Dizzee.

HEAR THAT RATTLING SOUND? THAT'S THE DEATH OF MUSI ...

... actually, i couldn't give half a rotten shit. the only album on the list i was remotely interested in was the maps one, and even then it really isn't that good.

actually, no: i'd like to hear dizzee, and for some reason haven't.

still, anyway. farting into a bottle will be the authentic sound of desperate dinner parties for the next few weeks. ha! joy.

Anyone but Jamie T.

otm

New Young Pony Club is fantastic.

http://freenoise.org/wrong/wrong.gif

I've liked "Ice Cream" since last summer, but when I listened to the album last week, I fully expected to hate it and instead was pleasantly surprised. It's got sort of a nice Tom Tom Club flair to it.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6977433.stm

The "new rave" group from south London scooped the £20,000 prize for their debut Myths of the Near Future.

Singer Jamie Reynolds said they deserved to beat Winehouse because she made a "retro record and we've made the most forward-thinking record".

NME editor Conor McNicholas, who was on the judging panel, said Winehouse's performance at the ceremony was "amazing".

"I've never been to an awards ceremony where somebody has performed and the room has been genuinely silent, proper pin-drop stuff," he said.

"But we have to take into account an awful lot and at the end of the day the Klaxons was felt to be the right decision.

"It's an album that could only ever have been made in Britain, could only ever have been made at this moment in time and it's a multi-layered album."

Winehouse's album was "one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen", he admitted.

But he added: "You can argue that ultimately it is a backward-looking album and one of the things Klaxons have tried to do is produce something that feels like it came from the future."

Does that NME guy only speak in ridiculous cliches? "one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen"? "it came from the future" when the name of the album is... ah fuck, I give up here.

"It's an album that could only ever have been made in Britain, could only ever have been made at this moment in time and it's a multi-layered album."

LOLOLOL

Singer Jamie Reynolds said they deserved to beat Winehouse because she made a "retro record and we've made the most forward-thinking record".

"one of the greatest vocal performances this country has ever seen"

But he added: "You can argue that ultimately it is a backward-looking album and one of the things Klaxons have tried to do is produce something that feels like it came from the future."

I basically agree with the NME guy.

"We are moving forward."

I also like New Young Pony Club - "Ice Cream" is GREAT.

At least the Arctic Monkeys didn't win again?

I wish I had had a bet.

Why is the judging panel so bad? Who is Simon Frith anyway? Why can't they get, (ducks) Paul Morley or someone on it?

Actually, I was going to compare the judging panel unfavourably with the Booker, but that isn't very inspiring either.

Chaired by Howard Davies, Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the line-up consists of Wendy Cope, poet; Giles Foden, journalist and author of BAFTA award winning The Last King of Scotland; Ruth Scurr, biographer and critic and Imogen Stubbs, actor.

frith is a good bloke but has a very low profile, i'll admit. he's also been doing this for a looong time.

i should reiterate that i don't give a fuck about the mercury, and i'm not sure why i'm wasting valuable seconds discussing it or thinking about it. hmph.

I know he's done it since it started, and I just googled him and found out he wrote the Sociology of Rock, but ...

I think it's a good idea to have a music prize not based on sales or whatever, so it's worth, erm, a minute or two thinking about.

Although the Woody Allen line does come to mind. "What's with all these awards? They're always giving out awards. Best Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler."

Who's actually on the panel? Every year it's a nightmare to find out. I know Conor McNicholas is on it, and obviously Frith chairs it, but who else? How are these 'experts' qualified?

It's upthread.

Simon Frith - music author/Professor of Music at University of Edinburgh
Charles Hazlewood - conductor and broadcaster on Radio 2, Radio 3 and BBC 4
Lauren Laverne - broadcaster, The Culture Show and Channel 4’s Transmission
Conor McNicholas - Editor of NME
George Ergatoudis - Head of Music, Radio 1
Dean Jackson – Presenter The Beat BBC Nottingham
Arwa Haider - Music Editor, Metro/Front Row contributor
Zoe Rahman - jazz musician
Mark Findlay - Head of Music, GCAP’s The One Network
Jude Rogers - Reviews Editor, Word Magazine/New Statesman/The Guardian