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Nationwide Mercury Prize

Posted on 31. Jul, 2008 by Ashley in Blurb
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The nominations are out. Bye bye Coldplay’s recurrent trend- release an album, get it nominated. Viva La Vida is the only album of theirs not to be nominated. Surprising, X&Y got a nomination but Viva La Vida didn’t? Alex Turner scores a hatrick with The Last Shadow Puppets nomination and ‘Red’ and ‘We Started Nothing’ by Guillemots and The Ting Tings respectively failed to get nominations. I think ‘Red’ shows just how talented and diverse Guillemots are. ‘We Started Nothing’ is, erm, nothing like anything else I have heard this year. Two very creative albums then that were overlooked by the judges.

Nominations for Adele, Estelle and Radiohead were to be expected whislt artists including Laura Marling, The Last Shadow Puppets, Elbow and British Sea Power all receive well deserved nominations.

I do feel sympathy for the 12 judges. Each member signs a confidentiality agreement, is then paid a token £1 and then given 250ish albums to listen to. This results in a lot of secrecy and of course sees a lot of critisism aimed at the prize. Last year, judge Jude Rogers wrote about how bloggers had labelled her “a fat, old, out-of-touch buffoon”. Some had even threatened her with nailbombs. Music inspires such strong opinions from just about everyone who loves it. The job of judging this prize is therefore not one I would take on. Ever!

Here’s the full list of nominated albums for 2008:

• Adele – 19
• British Sea Power – Do You Like Rock Music?
• Burial – Untrue
• Elbow – The Seldom Seen Kid
• Estelle – Shine
• Laura Marling – Alas, I Cannot Swim
• Neon Neon – Stainless Style
• Portico Quartet – Knee Deep In The North Sea
• Rachel Unthank and the Winterset – The Bairns
• Radiohead – In Rainbows
• Robert Plant & Alison Krusas – Raising Sand
• The Last Shadow Puppets – The Age of the Understatement

Personally I hope that either Elbow, The Last Shadow Puppets or Laura Marling take the prize. The £20,000 prize is dished out in early September. Let me know what you think.