2008 Mercury Music Prize Nominees announced
By: Dan Monsell
Oh dear. The backlash starts here. No Portishead? No Foals? No Spiritualized, Hot Chip, Mystery Jets or Johnny Flynn? Burial? Yeah he was great, but now he's got a Mercury nomination he just ain't cool no more - that's how it works, right? You get the picture, a whole crazy can of worms has been opened.
Today at 11.30am, the supposed bastion of critical justice that is the British Mercury Prize panel announced its nominees. Here, my pretties, is the list of the lucky few who got the nod.
Adele - 19
British Sea Power - Do You Like Rock Music?
Burial - Untrue
Elbow - The Seldom Seen Kid
Estelle - Shine
Last Shadow Puppets - The Age of the Understatement
Laura Marling - Alas I Cannot Swim
Neon Neon - Stainless Style
Portico Quartet - Knee Deep in the North Sea
Radiohead - In Rainbows
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset - The Bairns
Robert Plant & Alison Kraus - Raising Sand
William Hill has already put Last Shadow Puppets (Alex Turner making it a record three times in a row for nominations), and Radiohead as the 5/1 favourites to follow last year's winners Klaxons (pictured above). Elbow, Burial and Robert Plant/Alison Kraus follow closely behind, at 6/1.
We at Rockfeedback are mostly still in shock at the non-inclusion of Portishead's wonderful Third, surely one of the best albums of this year. Everyone's pretty keen on Radiohead winning, but we don't really know what that would really say, apart from hitting home hard that the record industry is struggling hard. But, if the award is really one that's "purely about the music itself", that should of course not stop the panel giving it some backing.
Otherwise, many are already tipping Burial for a likely outsider bet. Famed for being reluctant to perform live, it's been suggested that if he did, victory would be his. The smart money is probably on Last Shadow Puppets, although we can't remember when a couple of guys playing pub-room guitars backed by a full piece orchestra was worthy of being the best British record for a year. Although it isn't that bad - we suppose. There are of course certainly some fine records on there: British Sea Power, Laura Marling, Elbow, Neon Neon and Portico Quartet to name just a few.
So just for the record, we're going to say Radiohead FTW. And we think it's the best one on there, simple as. We have of course got it wrong every year, so we will of course be wrong again. Sorry for cursing you, Thom, Johnny et al.