More about: Harry StylesMercury Awards

This week the nominees have been announced for the 2022 Mercury Prize, and among them is Harry’s House, the wildly successful third album by Harry Styles. The record has been so popular with audiences this year that at one stage three of its tracks featured in the UK top 10 – and critics have had good things to say too, with the Guardian and Independent each awarding it four stars out of five, Pitchfork granting it a 7.2, and Gigwise ourselves giving it seven stars out of a possible ten. 

If you’re interested in my opinion, I actually think it’s superb. The songs are tight and jump from genre to genre in an interesting way, recalling the 70s and 80s without getting bogged down in pastiche. Styles’ quotidian lyrics also stand out – “I could fry an egg on you”; “Cocaine, side boob”; “I spilt beer on your friend, I’m not sorry”. And the production – especially when it comes to Harry Styles’ precarious vocals – is superb. The album is ear candy from start to finish. 

So what about its Mercury Prize nomination? Well, while some have celebrated Styles’ inclusion on the 2022 list, some have been vocal in their criticisms of the decision. One person on Twitter asked “can someone explain to me what the point of HARRY STYLES being on the shortlist is? Does he need the exposure?” while one commented “Harry Styles’ album actually pleasantly surprised me, but I feel his nomination goes against the spirit of the Mercury Prize”. Another tweeter was riled up enough to suggest that the nomination signifies that “Music is dead”. 

A lot of the complaints appear to centre on the idea that Styles’ nomination somehow goes against the perceived ethos of the Mercury Prize, which is ostensibly to provide exposure to innovative new acts rather than celebrating established ones. A quick visit to the Mercury website however confirms that no particular focus on new acts exists, with the write-up simply stating that “The main objectives of the Prize are to recognise and celebrate artistic achievement, provide a snapshot of the year in music and to help introduce new albums from a range of music genres to a wider audience.”

Since it began in 1992, the prize has been awarded to artists from virtually every genre, and in fairness many of them have been up and coming acts whose sales have been massively helped by the win, with artists such as James Blake and the XX receiving stratospheric sales increases after winning the prize in the early stages of their career. Other new artists though have arguably been harmed by winning the Mercury, with acts like Gomez, Speech Debelle, and Badly Drawn Boy drifting out of mainstream popularity soon afterwards, and some citing the pressure of the Mercury hype machine as a contributing factor. It does seem like when all is said and done, things can go either way for new artists when they do find themselves under the Mercury spotlight. 

That said, I do find myself having to admit that if one of the goals of the Mercury is to “introduce new albums from a range of music genres to a wider audience”, then they’re going to struggle to do that for an artist on the scale of Harry Styles. Along with his aforementioned chart success, Harry Styles has also been busy playing sold out shows at Wembley in 2022, making it difficult to see how his audience could possibly become any wider. Maybe some pop music snobs will now give Harry’s House a listen based on its nomination, but the effect is likely to be negligible. 

When it comes to those first two objectives though, I’d say there’s no doubt that Harry’s House deserves its place in the list. If we’re “celebrating artistic achievement” here, then there’s no reason not include an album which I and many other critics consider to be an artistic triumph. And if we’re “providing a snapshot of the year in music”, then it would almost seem ludicrous not to include Harry’s House. Its objective popularity among the public across 2022 is one thing, but it also sounds like 2022 – its light tone is just what a jaded population needed this year, and its postmodern approach is reflective of popular culture at large.

But there’s something else worth recognising here, and it’s that the debate over whether Harry’s House should have received its nomination ultimately won’t matter, because there’s just no way that it will win. How can I be confident saying that? Well, first of all, mainstream records like this receiving nominations for the award is no new thing. There are many precedents for this, with Dua Lipa’s Future Nostalgia, Ed Sheeran’s ÷, Take That’s Everything Changes, and even the Spice Girls’ seminal LP Spice each receiving the honour across the last 30 years. The one thing all of these albums have in common is that none of them won. While it makes sense to include them on a list of 12 records reflecting a snapshot of the year, it makes less sense to crown them winners because the organisers know they’d be creating a fart-in-the-wind moment given the albums’ existing success. 

These mainstream nominees, just like the jazz nominees, folk nominees, and occasional classical nominees, are worth including because they represent an important part of what British and Irish music has to offer. But everybody who’s been following the prize since 1992 can see which acts are truly in the race. When it comes to winning, my money this year is on Self Esteem’s extraordinary sophomore album Prioritise Pleasure. For Harry’s House on the other hand, it really is the taking part that counts.

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More about: Harry StylesMercury Awards