Sorry, but this one's going to be a bit of a rant. If you've seen the nominations for this year's Mercury Music Prize then maybe, like me, you might take issue with some of the choices.
Okay, so maybe Jarvis Cocker, as much as we love him, was never going to get on there for the fourth time. And no, Fields' album didn't really live up to my expectations. Everyone's sick of Damon Albarn, so maybe that's why his supposedly untitled side project didn't get nominated. But for me, there are two major omissions.
Firstly, where the hell is Patrick Wolf? Surely his manic third album deserved a spot of recognition from a panel supposedly appreciative of a range of musical genres; instead they nominate insipid scenesters like The Young Knives, New Young Pony Club and The View.
But if there's one album that really deserved and needed a nomination this year, it was Someone To Drive You Home by The Long Blondes. Achieving near universal acclaim on its release last September, this brilliant album only managed to crawl to number 41 in the charts. The publicity gained from a Mercury nomination would introduce what should be a hit album to a much wider audience. I'm frankly baffled as to why it did not receive a nomination.
Maybe its because the cover looks like it was designed by a blind, stupid, friendless five-year-old.
Okay, so maybe Jarvis Cocker, as much as we love him, was never going to get on there for the fourth time. And no, Fields' album didn't really live up to my expectations. Everyone's sick of Damon Albarn, so maybe that's why his supposedly untitled side project didn't get nominated. But for me, there are two major omissions.
Firstly, where the hell is Patrick Wolf? Surely his manic third album deserved a spot of recognition from a panel supposedly appreciative of a range of musical genres; instead they nominate insipid scenesters like The Young Knives, New Young Pony Club and The View.
But if there's one album that really deserved and needed a nomination this year, it was Someone To Drive You Home by The Long Blondes. Achieving near universal acclaim on its release last September, this brilliant album only managed to crawl to number 41 in the charts. The publicity gained from a Mercury nomination would introduce what should be a hit album to a much wider audience. I'm frankly baffled as to why it did not receive a nomination.
Maybe its because the cover looks like it was designed by a blind, stupid, friendless five-year-old.
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