Since its inception, the Mercury Music Prize has been a pillar of artistic values amidst the artlessness of awards-shows, where major-label/major-studio payola runs the show and celebrity is venerated above all else. Aside from Gorillaz, who famously claimed a Mercury win would be "carrying a dead albatross round your neck for eternity," most artists are thrilled at the prestige and exposure that comes with even a nomination. The 2011 short list features the usual 12 nominees; but given 10 is so much more nicely-rounded, I'm going to elide two titles from this break down: Gwilym Simcock's instrumental piano suite Good Days at Schloss Elmau (the token jazz inclusion) and Tinie Tempah's bog-standard hip-hop disc Disc-Overy.
1. Adele '21'
XL
If this were a regular awards-ceremony, Adele would be the unbackable favorite and runaway winner. Her third album, 21, has sold like a bazillion copies and hit No. 1 in seemingly every country recognized by the United Nations. In a major-label world lamenting declining sales, 21 is proof that those super-duper hit records —the cash cows that keep the whole system afloat— can still exist in the digital era. But Adele's not going to win. Her breakout is too synonymous with her performance at the Brit Awards, which are like the anti-Mercury. "Someone Like You" has secretly really creepy lyrics. And it's just too obvious a winner. Sorry, Adele, you'll just have to comfort yourself with your legions of fans, your millions of dollars, and your youth.
2. Anna Calvi 'Anna Calvi'
Domino
Anna Calvi's self-titled debut is a work of fine mood and tone: a slow, dark, near-Gothic cabaret played with tasteful restraint. The largely-stripped-down sound allows Calvi's voice ample room to shine: and it sounds big and bruised and soulful throughout. It's a really strong debut that never quite gets to anything truly transcendent, and can seem as mannered as it does moody In another year, maybe Calvi would seem like a possible winner, but, this year, that'd be a bit embarrassing. Because Calvi is openly, obviously, eternally in debt to PJ Harvey. Which is fine, of course; it's great, even. But with the real PJ Harvey at the peak of her artistic powers on Let England Shake, giving it to Anna Calvi would be a weird, borderline indefensible choice.
3. Elbow 'Build a Rocket Boys!'
Polydor
When Elbow won the Mercury in 2008, for their fourth record, The Seldom Seen Kid, they were an anomaly amongst the Mercury's famously-anomalous run of winners. The award has proved, time and again, heavily skewed towards debutantes; since 2002, only they and Antony and the Johnsons have won for albums that weren't debuts. But Elbow aren't one of those acts that arrived fully-formed; they were playing together for 11 years(!) before their debut album was released, in 2001. Since then, they've progressed into the thinking-man's landfill-indie band: sounding blandly-anthemic and Glastonbury-friendly whilst being fantastically-produced and of non-generic lyrics. They're custom-built for listeners who love the five-guys-in-a-band model. But it'd be a shock if they won back-to-back Mercurys.
4. Everything Everything 'Man Alive'
Geffen
Everything Everything are one of those bands who, depending on who's listening, sound either thrilling and groundbreaking and amazing, or borderline unlistenable. Their music is a hectic, hysterical, falsetto-flaying art-rock collage that constantly shifts in tone, in key, in tempo, in sonic quality. Their fondness for polyrhythmic gymnastics almost recalls math-rock nerds, but they don't share their punk sensibility or stripped-down austerity. Instead, Everything Everything employ their ridiculous chops in crazed studio cut-ups: bold, blaring, painfully colorful, and kind of show-off-y. I'm, um, not a fan at all: to these ears it's headache inducing artistic vomit. But that doesn't stop me from seeing a potential Mercury winner lurking here.
5. Ghostpoet 'Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam'
Brownswood
It's long been an unofficial Mercury policy to turn the public on to music under-rated, over-looked, or unfairly obscure. Ghostpoet looks like he could be a big beneficiary this year. A year ago, the London rapper/producer/one-man-band was putting his debut EP up on Bandcamp, and the early-'11 release of Peanut Butter Blues & Melancholy Jam was under-the-radar, even in the underground circles where his friendships with Metronomy and Micachu are meaningful. Ghostpoet's debut LP is as close to experimental as a hip-hop record gets: his slurred, mumbled, Roots Manuva-ish flows nestled amongst thick, shape-shifting, sonically-strange productions. He doesn't seem to have much chance of actually winning, but many more may now know his name.
6. James Blake 'James Blake'
Universal
If I had to pick a winner, I'd go for James Blake. His debut, self-titled set is accessible —it was released on a major-label, it's a pop record of sorts— but it's also unendingly credible. And, like the winners of the 2010 Mercury, The XX, it's crossed over to American audiences and internet-tastemakers, and has already appeared on a bunch of best-album-of-2011-thus-far lists. Blake is often described as a dubstep producer, but on his debut album he sounds like a soul-singer with a bent for slippery sonics and gentle strangeness. The songs herein are often radically stripped down; silence persisting throughout as beats, piano, and Blake's multi-tracked vocals slip in and out of the mix. It's brilliantly produced, played, and performed, and, likely, a worthy winner.
7. Katy B 'On a Mission'
Sony
For those looking for signs that Katy B could be a potential winner, a scan through past Mercury winners offers one poignant comparison: Ms. Dynamite. Another crossover artist from the British electronic underground who transcended their scene to make a straight pop record that could battle with American R&B heavyweights for sugary pop singles. Coincidentally enough, Ms. Dynamite (who won in 2002 for her platinum-selling post-2-step breakout A Little Deeper) actually appears on On a Mission, guesting on the dancefloor-friendly club number "Lights On." Amongst the Mercury Short List, Katy B is pretty much the only one who could be considered dancefloor-friendly. Will that help her chances of winning? Lord knows. Who can ever pick this thing?
8. King Creosote and Jon Hopkins 'Diamond Mine'
Domino
Despite all the awesome albums King Creosote has made over the years, this is the Scottish folkie's first Mercury nom. And it comes with one of his most elusive, experimental records: a collaboration with Brian Eno associate Jon Hopkins, in which the King's sweet, sweet voice is set to looming electronic sounds and audio collages. Diamond Mine is some sort of a concept record, filled with found sounds from a rural fishing village in Scotland, and its meeting-of-world feeling adds it with extra critical intrigue. It's a beautiful, barely-there record, and it'd be amazing if it won the Mercury. But, even in an awards-show race this wacky, it seems like a long-shot: there not a nice enough narrative or strong 'personality' to sell this LP to the masses.
9. Metronomy 'The English Riviera'
Because
On its release, audiences were divided on The English Riviera, which is typical of an album throwing change at the listeners. Metronomy had won a fervent following with their twitchy, quirky, sproingy take on electro-pop. But, on their third record, for Joseph Mount and co toned down the energy and softened their delivery. Where 2008's crossover-success Nights Out was verily loaded with singalong singles, The English Riviera used its anticipated status to throw a curve-ball: it songs long, occasionally-strange, and almost uniformly slower-paced. It Mercury nomination is, in some ways, some kind of validation; their 'artier' direction finding favor, here. It's certainly not hard to imagine them winning the award, either, even if there are other more likely contenders.
10. PJ Harvey 'Let England Shake'
Island
Bookmakers have installed Queen Polly Jean as the short-priced favorite to claim the Mercury; inspired by the unending string of critical hosannas that have met Harvey's eighth album. But, aside from the fact that favorites never seem to win the Mercury, Harvey would have to become the first repeat-winner in the award's history, after claiming the Prize in 2001 for her swaggering rock'n'roll record Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea. If I were a gamblin' man, I wouldn't be taking those odds. Which, of course, means nothing in and outside of this awards show: Let England Shake is an absolutely brilliant album, a landmark longplayer from one of indie music's true icons; at turns provocative, poetic, strange, strangling, and anthemic.
And the Winner is...: PJ Harvey, Let England Shake. Gladly, I am not a gamblin' man, so I may tip my cap to a most-worthy winner...
And the Winner is...: PJ Harvey, Let England Shake. Gladly, I am not a gamblin' man, so I may tip my cap to a most-worthy winner...
