Bat for Lashes – Two Suns
Florence & The Machine – Lungs
Friendly Fires – Friendly Fires
Kasabian – West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum
La Roux – La Roux
The Horrors – Primary Colours
Glasvegas – Glasvegas
Led Bib– Sensible Shoes
Lisa Hannigan– Sea Sew
Speech Debelle– Speech Therapy
Sweet Billy Pilgrim – Twice Born Men
The Invisible – The Invisible
Hmm. Nope, it’s not the answer to the question, “what’s just been added to HMV‘s never ending 2 for £10 offer then?” It is, though I’m struggling to quite grasp it, this year’s Mercury Music Prize nominations list. I know that the labels have to submit albums for it (and pay a small entrance fee) but surely things aren’t so screwed up in the music industry that most of the best albums of the last twelve months haven’t been put forward. In which case, how do we end up with the above list? Fuck knows. The Kasabian album has its moments, but I’m not finding myself playing it all that regularly. The Friendly Fires record sounds like Cut Copy and Passion Pit falling down the stairs, out of time with each other. Glasvegas have been confirmed as one-trick ponies with their recent swathes of shite cover versions, all of them based on the premise that a droning guitar noise and a halved BPM equals genius. Rather than just a shite Glasvegas cover version. Did you catch their version of ‘Be My Baby’ from T In The Park? No? Lucky bastard!
La Roux have come up with a couple of decent tunes, including one truly great one, but the album itself is nothing to write home about. I didn’t think anyone still took The Horrors seriously, particularly after listening to their seemingly music-less remix of a track off the new Manics album. The Florence & The Machine bubble will be long burst by the time the winner is announced and we’ll have moved on to another slightly out of tune, kooky young thing. File under Ida Maria. Lisa Hannigan’s music is nice. And that’s the problem, I suppose. Who ever gets remembered for sounding nice? Speech Debelle I’m curious about, but I don’t get the impression that she’s achieved greatness just yet. I do like the Bat For Lashes album, and I suspect it will grow on me more over the year and it might even make the longish end of the year list. So, I suppose I’ll grant them that one. But just that one. I’ve only recently flogged a previous Sweet Billy Pilgrim album on Amazon Marketplace that didn’t do much for me. To be fair, when it comes to the new one, the music does, at least, sound quite interesting and I’ll cautiously reserve judgement, because it’s the kind of music I do sometimes just ‘click’ with, but for now it’s nothing much more than ‘interesting’.
Have you got your jazz token? Here it is, in the shape of Led Bib’s latest record. Meh. And finally, one of the few I’d not previously heard, but which I’m now considering getting as a result of the iTunes samples, ‘The Invisible’ by The Invisible. Slightly squelch electronic music with bits of shoegaze. It’s not an original mix, but it works quite nicely. I’ve read TV On The Radio comparisons whilst doing my research, which have some truth in them. The vocals don’t do much for me, but there’s something interesting going on musically.
I should say that I do applaud the appearance on the list of a couple of pretty new and unhyped acts that do deserve some recognition, but taken as a whole, it’s a list the doesn’t really inspire. Now, I’ve bunged together suggestions for an alternative list and, while I can’t claim any points for obscurist choices, I do think it’s not a bad selection of records. I did only spend a few minutes putting it together and I’m sure I’ve missed off some really obvious, really brilliant records but for now, those twelve songs represent twelve albums that I reckon are pretty bloody good. That list – in a sample it for free form – is available here.
Just Played 