Who should win the Mercury Prize and why?
- By Jack Preston -
- Nov 01, 2012
Twelve albums, one winner. Tonight will see the 21st Mercury Music Prize dished out at London’s Roundhouse. This week has seen serious money changed hands for the likes of Django Django, Richard Hawley, Plan B and Alt-J as the odds continue to flitter.
As previous years have shown (see Speech Debelle – 2009), it can often be a hard prize to call. Although with the last two years staying true to form and awarding the £20,000 to The xx and PJ Harvey, the judges may once again choose to spring a surprise.
Here’s Red Room’s look at a selection of the nominated acts and why we think they have a right to lay claim to the biggest annual prize in British music.
1. Richard Hawley – because he got bloody robbed by some spotty kids in 2006.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Richard Hawley was supposed to be coming into tonight’s awards with one prize already under his belt. The stage was set for Hawley to claim the top prize in 2006 and he would of as well, if it wasn’t for those pesky kids. Something the ever self-aware Alex Turner acknowledged in Arctic Monkeys' acceptance speech.
2. Alt-J - They've given us a whole lot of broom-shaped pleasure.
Have you listened to ‘An Awesome Wave’ recently? It’s very nice. But is it Mercury Prize material? We’re not quite sure about that, but for the pure ridiculousness of it all (we point you to lyrics such as “In your snatch fits pleasure, broom-shaped pleasure”) it would be nice to see them get their grubby hands on it. If you’re not convinced, perhaps have a read of this Pitchfork review, picking up on some of the album’s finer points.
3. Ben Howard - Now that's how to nail an acoustic performance (on the brrrrridge).
We’ve had some great Red Room performances over the years, although none quite come close to this fine Ben Howard acoustic session on the windy bridge. One of our most viewed videos and an office favourite, all at Red Room would be happy to see Ben walk away with the Mercury tonight
The nominations in full...
Alt-J – An Awesome Wave
Ben Howard – Every Kingdom
Django Django – Django Django
Field Music – Plumb
Richard Hawley – Standing at the Sky's Edge
Michael Kiwanuka – Home Again
Lianne La Havas – Is Your Love Big Enough?
Sam Lee – Ground of its Own
The Maccabees – Given to the Wild
Plan B – ill Manors
Roller Trio – Roller Trio
Jessie Ware – Devotion
So who do you want to see win?
By Jack Preston. Content Executive. Tweets at @JackPressedOn
