Mercury Music Prize: Best Of The British?

With the Brit Awards dishing out awards to the mainstream pop conglomerate, MOR indie acts and lifetime achievement gongs to the likes of The Boomtown Rats while other bashes merely provide the same opportunity for the industry to brown nose their celebrity pals, the Mercury Music Prize supposedly prides itself on being the proper music award. Apparently the only award removed from industry biases and record company ‘pressure’, the Mercury has the lofty task of seeking out the one most exciting, relevant and cutting edge album this country has produced in a year. True, it’s easy to nit pick at nominations, yet for an award with so much expectation on its shoulders, the burning question is have this year’s panel picked the best that British music has to offer?

With obvious choices such as the Kaiser Chiefs, Bloc Party, The Magic Numbers and Hard-Fi all booking their places on the 2005 list, it’s hard to argue against acts that have generated so much excitement from many corners. Yet, there are some notable absentees that surely should have earned a place. Surely the judges could have found a place for Tom Vek, easily one of the more interesting and eclectic artists to have emerged in the past twelve months. Or from other genres, Mylo, the indisputable new king of UK dance who’s arguably made one of the defining electronic albums of the last twelve months. While the fantastically zany Clor have also been both left out in the cold. This is without even mentioning British Sea Power or Gorillaz - two acts who have crafted new and exciting sounds on their second full lengths. But really we could go on…

Admittedly, with only twelve nominations allowed, it would be totally unfeasible to expect all of the above to be up for it. However, the nagging issue is that there’s some acts on the list that we surely could have done without? The most glaring nomination is Coldplay – an act who are up for the Mercury for the third time. Whether or not you’re a fan of their music, one thing that the sanguine ‘X&Y’ is not is an example of fresh and vibrant new music. Elsewhere, the queen of coffee table KT Tunstall and the now obligatory jazz and folk nominations for Polar Bear and Seth Lakeman could surely have been swapped for any of the artists named above?

But before we get carried away with ourselves, it must be said that the list is not totally shite and still a million times more adventurous than the Brit nominations are likely to be. Thankfully this year the judges saw sense not to nominate anyone as dreadfully dire as early nineties winners M People. And as well as the usual guitar bands, also nominated are the fantastic multinational dance collective The Go! Team, the unique dance-hip-hop-ragga stylings of MIA and the frankly weird but extremely moving Anthony & The Johnsons, armed with a voice to melt a million hearts. In a sane and just world any of these acts would win.

Though those nominated will obviously be delighted at the prospect, with immediate increased record sales and popularity tied in, they should equally be aware of what some call The Curse of the Mercury, with some winners falling on harder times after the win. Previous victims include Gomez, whose album sales have consistently gone into decline after the Mercury, while Badly Drawn Boy has seemingly turned into a high rent busker, releasing an album every year or so without half the allure of his mesmerising ‘The Hour of the Bewilderbeast.’ While 1999’s winner Talvin Singh, despite producing great music, was an unknown before the gong and has been barely noticed again after.

However, swings and roundabouts as things are, not all the winners have struggled following their award; PJ Harvey, Pulp and Primal Scream all went on to make seminal albums after. While last year’s winners Franz Ferdinand enjoyed a blinding 2004 and on the evidence of the radiant new single ‘Do You Want To’, their forthcoming album, ‘You Could Have Had It So Much Better… With Franz Ferdinand’, promises to be, well, even better.

With northern Blur clones Kaiser Chiefs and the much-lauded purveyors of angular indie rock Bloc Party both neck and neck favourites for this year's gong, as always it will be interesting to see who wins. Whoever does win (smart people are tipping Hard Fi or Maximo Park) should enjoy the moment, the free champagne and the hefty cheque - yet if one thing's for certain there’s going to be plenty of music lovers still befuddled by the result.