Mercury Music Prize 2008

So Elbow have won the Mercury Music Prize; a feat that has been met with almost universal applause. The Seldom Seen Kid - a slow-burner like all of their albums - was pronounced the best album of the last year.

I like Elbow. I have all their records, have seen them live and consider myself a fan. Their records seem instrically Northern; which is something that always appeal to my regional sense of satisfaction. They are also quite obviously nice, down-to-earth blokes and you tend to see Guy Garvey knocking about Manchester regularly too. Which is cool.

So - A Mercury Prize winner? I'll go with that. Album of the year? I don't think so.

To first of all specifically look at the Elbow record. It's certainly their best offering of the last few years and is perhaps on a par with the 2001 Mercury nominated album Asleep in the Back. My main gripe is that it has four or five stand-out tracks and the rest of the album just blends into that. There is no real "wow" factor that makes this stand out more over the others. I would argue that it is inferior to several other albums on the shortlist but the reason that they have been given the award is because Elbow are the band who would make the biggest gain from receiving the prize.

I have been a long term supporter of the Mercurys as a useful tool for bringing great bands and artists into the mainstream. I would argue quite ferociously in favour of this style of decision making for the Mercurys. What annoys me is that it is then presented as the "Album of the Year" and the likes of Lauren Laverne and the judges go on about how it is only judged on the album itself. Looking at practically every winner that has ever gone before, I find this incredibly hard to believe.

Lets just examine the favourites for this years title:

Radiohead - (in my opinion) they have released the best album for the third time in their Mercury life but haven't won. Reason: They are the most important band in the world already. And they won't turn up.

Burial - I'm quite curious about Burial's record, mainly because its completely not my cup of tea. I listened to it a few times from start to finish in the hope that it would turn me on to dub; it didn't. However, from the looks of it the main reason why Burial didn't win is that he didn't turn up and he was a massive favourite. By merely becoming the bookies sure-fire winner, Burial has already gained the same kind of exposure, record sales and hype that he would have got if he had won.

Last Shadow Puppets - I think this is a better record than the Elbow one. There is an argument that it is looking backwards in style rather than looking forward but it doesn't detract from the quality of tunes. Reason it didn't win: Alex Turner won two years ago. Nobody has ever won the order twice.

I can't for the life of me ever imagine Portico Quartet, Estelle, Adele, British Sea Power or Rachel Unthank win; regardless of how fond I am (particularly of the latter). So when you take out three of the big-hitters and the ones highly unlikely to win you are left with a sublist of the following people: Laura Marling, Elbow and Neon Neon.

So, now we're down to the shortlist of three; i guess it's Elbow isn't it?

I actually had a crafty £5 bet on Laura Marling at 10-1 when the shortlist came out, mainly because of the reasons that I had detailed above and because I think she is the most extraordinary of talents. I was hoping that she'd pay back the silly sums of money that I spent trying to gather her early EPs on eBay, as much as anything else.

The popular consensus is that it might do Laura more harm than good to win. Arguments that she's too fragile, too young, too nervous around the press and too frightened of publicity to be able to handle it. I'm not sure whether I agree with this or not and I guess we'll never know. I'd much rather trust in her talent and obvious wisdom.

So that all boils down to Elbow again. They are great Mercury winners; a worthy band making a worthy album that finally is granted some mainstream success and the audience that goes with it. I have no bones about that; this is what makes the Mercurys so fantastic.

Well done Elbow. But next time you hear Lauren Laverne or one of the judges comment that it is judged purely on the individual albums, don't believe it. Nothing is ever that black and white.