Mercury Music Prize tonight, who do you think should win (or will)

[Bluebirds]

I actually think the nominees for the Mercury prize this year is, as far as the Mercury goes, quite good:

Adele
British Sea Power
Burial
Elbow
Estelle
Laura Marling
Neon Neon
Portico Quartet
Rachel Unthank & The Winterset
Radiohead
Robert Plant & Alison Krauss
The Last Shadow Puppets

I'd probably go for Radiohead (How leftfield!!!) but think Elbow equally deserve it. I also think Laura Marling's LP and the Plant n Krauss one are pretty strong contenders. Burial I must admit to knowing nothing of but he seems the red hot favourite.

The Last Shadow Puppets LP is ok but haven't folks heard of Scott Walker and/or Ennio Morricone?? Neon Neon is by Gruff so enough said but it didn't really "rock my boat". The BSP album is not as good as the first two though better than most stuff out there and I think Estelle's American Boy was a great pop song. Sadly I know not much else of the other nominees.....

 

[Bluebirds]

Forgot to mention the Guardina are doing a live blog hosted by Tim Jonze, who is now music editor of the Guardian......

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

British Sea Power are going to win.

Elbow should but they're not going to.

 

[CharlieFairhead]

Elbow have a great frontman in Guy Harvey who can actually sing and write decent lyrics, good on them..they've not made a weak album yet.

Laura Marling is so angelic..I'm in love, pathetic i know.

 

[Kewpie]

Good to know Elbow won the prize.

 

[Hidden By Rags]

British Sea Power are going to win.

Elbow should but they're not going to.

There's a premonition, with the bands reversed!

BSP were a long shot, but as I watched a replay of Elbow's performance on the BBC site, I just can't get into them. I've tried to listen to them in the past, but nothing catches my ears' attention.

Thanks for another musical morsel, Charlie.

 

[Maurice E]

Elbow have a great frontman in Guy Harvey who can actually sing and write decent lyrics, good on them..they've not made a weak album yet.

Laura Marling is so angelic..I'm in love, pathetic i know.

he should be called Guy Harvey but his actual name is Guy Garvey!
there's something about Elbows that I'm just not that keen on. haven't heard many of their songs, admittedly. heard his show on 6 Music and he was a pretty funny bloke.
they do seem to be over-reacting a bit to winning Mercury "it's the best thing that's ever happenned to us" etc.
I get the impression they're one of those bands like PJ Harvey and Radiohead who get brilliant reviews regardless of what they do!

 

[Emotional Guide Dog]

they do seem to be over-reacting a bit to winning Mercury "it's the best thing that's ever happenned to us" etc.
I get the impression they're one of those bands like PJ Harvey and Radiohead who get brilliant reviews regardless of what they do!

That's not over-reacting, it's a natural reaction to a reversal of the kind of luck they've had over the years.
I don't agree that they get brilliant reviews regardless of the album content (I think Seldom Seen Kid is brilliant although not as good as Cast Of Thousands) but I take your point. There's a sizeable amount of the music press & music fans that have a feeling for Elbow that's more than the music. It's almost like people can see that they put their heart & soul into their albums & are urging them on to be a success.

I'm glad Radiohead didn't win. In Rainbows is an alright album but it really does sound like a band on autopilot. You'd expect more from an album so universally praised.

 

[Kewpie]

Bump

Tonight 11:35pm BBC 2 will showing the repeat of the coverage.