June 9, 201015 yr Author It was incredibly average, even by Mercury winners standards. It then led to friction between Speech and Ninja Tune when a bunch of new "agents" started telling her that her label had wronged her because the award did not translate into sales. Part of her argument was that the record company didn't make much effort to capitalise on the award. The album isn't my sort of music at all so I'm not really in a position to judge whether it was any good.
June 9, 201015 yr The Mercury, in my opinion, is the biggest shower of $h!te. How can you get a dozen radically different albums and choose the best? It defies all logic. And besides, isn't a Mercury award all to often the kiss of death? Speece Dabelles album was bought for me as an 'experiment' purchase. Thought it would be a cut above the usual 'urban brit' flare but it was suprisingly 'heard-it-all-before' and dare I say, cliched.
June 9, 201015 yr The Mercury, in my opinion, is the biggest shower of $h!te. How can you get a dozen radically different albums and choose the best? It defies all logic. No it doesn't. I can certainly chose the best album from any given 12.
June 10, 201015 yr The shortlist is usually good but the some of the winners have been weird...I adore The Seldom Seen Kid and I Am a Bird Now though. Those were deserved and both years were very strong. Speech Debelle and Klaxons winning over Amy Winehouse were sort of WTF moments to me
June 10, 201015 yr Part of her argument was that the record company didn't make much effort to capitalise on the award. The album isn't my sort of music at all so I'm not really in a position to judge whether it was any good. Ninja Tune are not EMI - they can't just chuck another 500,000 copies of the album into the shops in the hope they will all sell. There was no significant increase in sales via iTunes either if I recall - how can that be their fault for not supplying? It was also quite a new release and they probably would not have recouped their initial outlay on the first release - if the label had followed her 'advice' they would have probably run themselves into the ground doing so. The truth is that the public are now able to try before they buy to a greater extent than ever before and most thought 'well, I don't see what's special about that'.
June 10, 201015 yr Author Ninja Tune are not EMI - they can't just chuck another 500,000 copies of the album into the shops in the hope they will all sell. There was no significant increase in sales via iTunes either if I recall - how can that be their fault for not supplying? It was also quite a new release and they probably would not have recouped their initial outlay on the first release - if the label had followed her 'advice' they would have probably run themselves into the ground doing so. The truth is that the public are now able to try before they buy to a greater extent than ever before and most thought 'well, I don't see what's special about that'. It's not just a question of getting copies in the shops, they did very little to publicise the album.
June 10, 201015 yr I don't mind the Mercury Prize at all, it's a far better judge of quality than most of the other major awards. Previous winners (brackets my choice of winner that year): 1992 Primal Scream 'Screamadelica' (Primal Scream) 1993 Suede 'Suede' (Suede) 1994 M People 'Elegant Slumming' (The Prodigy 'Music For The Jilted Generation') 1995 Portishead 'Dummy' (Portishead) 1996 Pulp 'Different Class' (Pulp) 1997 Roni Size / Reprazent 'New Forms' (Radiohead 'OK Computer' - biggest mistake in Mercury history, Chemical Brothers 'Dig Your Own Hole' or Suede 'Coming Up' would have been better winners too) 1998 Gomez 'Bring It On' (Massive Attack 'Mezzanine') 1999 Talvin Singh 'OK' (Blur '13') 2000 Badly Drawn Boy 'The Hour Of Bewilderbeast' (Kathryn Williams 'Little Black Numbers') 2001 PJ Harvey 'Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea' (Goldfrapp 'Felt Mountain' - PJ close second) 2002 Ms. Dynamite 'A Little Deeper' (The Streets 'Original Pirate Material') 2003 Dizzee Rascal 'Boy In Da Corner' (Lemon Jelly 'Lost Horizons') 2004 Franz Ferdinand 'Franz Ferdinand' (Belle & Sebastian 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress') 2005 Antony & The Johnsons 'I Am A Bird Now' (Antony or Go! Team 'Thunder Lightning Strike') 2006 Arctic Monkeys 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' (Guillemots 'Through The Windowpane') 2007 Klaxons 'Myths Of The Near Future' (Amy Winehouse 'Back To Black') 2008 Elbow 'The Seldom Seen Kid' (Elbow, Radiohead 'In Rainbows' or Burial 'Untrue') 2009 Speech Debelle 'Speech Therapy' (Bat For Lashes 'Two Suns' or Florence & The Machine 'Lungs') The ones in bold are particular favourites of mine (or at least were at the time). Ms Dynamite is the worst of the lot for me, that album was truly appalling. Edited June 10, 201015 yr by Dandy*
June 11, 201015 yr It's not just a question of getting copies in the shops, they did very little to publicise the album. They'd laid out their budget for the initial PR campaign. Winning the Mercury Prize should generate the buzz without. Sorry, I cannot buy that the label was at fault. I run a very small label myself, I know how much this could have cost them.
July 20, 201014 yr The nominations are today at 11.30 . There are rumblings (which I can only hope are true) that Teenage Fanclub are on the list.
July 20, 201014 yr Biffy Clyro – 'Only Revolutions' Corinne Bailey Rae – 'The Sea' Dizzee Rascal – 'Tongue N' Cheek' Kit Downes Trio – 'Golden' Foals – 'Total Life Forever' I Am Kloot – 'Sky At Night' Laura Marling – 'I Speak Because I Can' Mumford And Sons – 'Sigh No More' Paul Weller – 'Wake Up The Nation' Villagers – 'Becoming A Jackal' Wild Beasts – 'Two Dancers' The XX – 'XX'
July 20, 201014 yr The nominees are: Biffy Clyro Villagers Wild Beasts Dizzee Rascal (WTF?) Laura Marling The XX Foals Paul Weller I Am Kloot Corrine Bailey Rae Mumford and Sons Kit Downes Trio A very safe list this year, as if they're trying not to get a repeat of the Speech Debelle fiasco last year.
July 20, 201014 yr Either Mumford or Laura Marling to win please. Actually I am quite surprised Plan B isn't on that list I was convinced he would be nominated and even possibly win. So big shock.
July 20, 201014 yr Dizzee Rascal's album is truly dire aside from the singles, and not even all of those are great...
July 20, 201014 yr Very disappointing list of nominees, I always like to find a couple of artists/albums I've not heard of, but there doesn't seem to be much of that going on this year. Laura Marling should've won with 'Alas, I Cannot Swim' but 'I Speak Because I Can' is nowhere near as good, imo.
July 20, 201014 yr I'd be happy with Corinne (way better than expected), the XX, or Laura Marling. Not heard The Villagers. Hope Dizzee doesn't win it, or Weller.
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