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Mercury nominations 2021


Jimi Shandrix

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Is this even relevant today? Was it ever relevant? I'm going to say no. How do you measure up such wildly different albums? Anyhow, I've got so much time on my hands as I sit at home after a major operation waiting for my next major operation that I gave it a go. I've listened to all the nominations in the past 2 days, which in some cases was a truly painful experience. Some, I'll admit, I couldn't finish. How do they even come up with the shortlist? There were some surprising omissions. Media darlings Squid's album sounded like a cross between the Mondays and LCD Soundsystem whilst being nowhere near as good as either, but I thought it might get the nod. Genuinely baffled that Black Midi's masterful "Cavalcade" didn't get nominated and slightly surprised that the Dry Cleaning album was passed over. Thought Paul McCartney might get a look-in. But anyway, on to what actually did get nominated.

Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams.   Utterly forgettable jazz inflected pop soul. 

Berwyn - Demotape/Vega.   The kids are listening to drill now, which the Mercury's are never going to acknowledge. This sounds really dated. 1XTRA fodder.

Black Country New Road - For The First Time.    For me, the clear winner. One of the most exciting guitar records in recent years. No chance of winning.

Celeste - Not Your Muse.   Amazing Billie Holliday-esque voice singing some of the blandest tunes you'll hear all year.

Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders - Promises.   Rips off Harold Budd's "Pavilion Of Dreams" but still, a great record. Very good chance of picking up the prize.

Ghetts - Conflict Of Interest.   Really poor trap-rap. British hip hop must have better nominees than this. Anyone?

Hannah Peel - Fir Wave.  Love her "Nightracks" programme on Radio 3 but found this to be thoroughly average electronica.

Laura Mvula - Pink Noise.   Very 80's sounding pop soul. Reminded me of Jaki Graham. Not good.

Mogwai - As The Love Continues.   Their 1st nomination. For one of their weakest albums. "Young Team" should have won it.

Nubya Garcia - Source.   The token jazz album. The biggest surprise for me. Went into this one blind. Excellent album of 70's stoned Mahavishnu-esque grooves.

Sault - Rise.   Probably the favourite. They've been listening to "Blue Lines", "Talking Book" & "What's Going On" I didn't like this as much as any of them. Maybe in 2021

this needs to win rather than deserves to win. FWIW I think it will win.                        

Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend.   Kinda reminded me of Paramore. Massively over produced in the way late period U2 albums were. Not my bag at all.

 

So, that's 2021's nominations. Overall, a pretty poor list. For me, the 3 that stand out are BCNR, FP/Pharoah and Nubya Garcia.  The winner will be either FP/Pharoah  or Sault. What does everybody else think? Does anybody still care?

 

 

Edited by Jimi Shandrix
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Not interested in Mercury awards but I'm a big Pharaoh Sanders fan and didn't realise he was on a new album so will listen to that.  Nubya Garcia good but never really got into the new London/UK jazz scene that's popular now.  Big Sault fan though best band around bar none imo bit unfair comparing Rise to Blue Lines/Talking Book/What's Going On which are 3 Mojo/Rolling Stone etc top 20/50 albums of all time.

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10 minutes ago, Boostin' Kev said:

Not interested in Mercury awards but I'm a big Pharaoh Sanders fan and didn't realise he was on a new album so will listen to that.  Nubya Garcia good but never really got into the new London/UK jazz scene that's popular now.  Big Sault fan though best band around bar none imo bit unfair comparing Rise to Blue Lines/Talking Book/What's Going On which are 3 Mojo/Rolling Stone etc top 20/50 albums of all time.

Yup, that's a fair point. It's a bit unfair comparing anything to those three excellent albums. I thought there was too many ideas in the Sault album and not all of them worked. Maybe it will grow on me. The Pharoah album is tremendous. 

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I've heard about half of them - of which BC,NR would be a clear winner for me too. There's a couple of others I'll give a listen to as well.

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1 hour ago, Jimi Shandrix said:

Is this even relevant today? Was it ever relevant? I'm going to say no. How do you measure up such wildly different albums? Anyhow, I've got so much time on my hands as I sit at home after a major operation waiting for my next major operation that I gave it a go. I've listened to all the nominations in the past 2 days, which in some cases was a truly painful experience. Some, I'll admit, I couldn't finish. How do they even come up with the shortlist? There were some surprising omissions. Media darlings Squid's album sounded like a cross between the Mondays and LCD Soundsystem whilst being nowhere near as good as either, but I thought it might get the nod. Genuinely baffled that Black Midi's masterful "Cavalcade" didn't get nominated and slightly surprised that the Dry Cleaning album was passed over. Thought Paul McCartney might get a look-in. But anyway, on to what actually did get nominated.

Arlo Parks - Collapsed In Sunbeams.   Utterly forgettable jazz inflected pop soul. 

Berwyn - Demotape/Vega.   The kids are listening to drill now, which the Mercury's are never going to acknowledge. This sounds really dated. 1XTRA fodder.

Black Country New Road - For The First Time.    For me, the clear winner. One of the most exciting guitar records in recent years. No chance of winning.

Celeste - Not Your Muse.   Amazing Billie Holliday-esque voice singing some of the blandest tunes you'll hear all year.

Floating Points/Pharoah Sanders - Promises.   Rips off Harold Budd's "Pavilion Of Dreams" but still, a great record. Very good chance of picking up the prize.

Ghetts - Conflict Of Interest.   Really poor trap-rap. British hip hop must have better nominees than this. Anyone?

Hannah Peel - Fir Wave.  Love her "Nightracks" programme on Radio 3 but found this to be thoroughly average electronica.

Laura Mvula - Pink Noise.   Very 80's sounding pop soul. Reminded me of Jaki Graham. Not good.

Mogwai - As The Love Continues.   Their 1st nomination. For one of their weakest albums. "Young Team" should have won it.

Nubya Garcia - Source.   The token jazz album. The biggest surprise for me. Went into this one blind. Excellent album of 70's stoned Mahavishnu-esque grooves.

Sault - Rise.   Probably the favourite. They've been listening to "Blue Lines", "Talking Book" & "What's Going On" I didn't like this as much as any of them. Maybe in 2021

this needs to win rather than deserves to win. FWIW I think it will win.                        

Wolf Alice - Blue Weekend.   Kinda reminded me of Paramore. Massively over produced in the way late period U2 albums were. Not my bag at all.

 

So, that's 2021's nominations. Overall, a pretty poor list. For me, the 3 that stand out are BCNR, FP/Pharoah and Nubya Garcia.  The winner will be either FP/Pharoah  or Sault. What does everybody else think? Does anybody still care?

 

 

Ghetts album was brilliant. If you've not followed his career and don't follow the genre I can see why it would seem mediocre but if you're familiar with his legacy it was a brilliant album imo. 

I dont follow this kinda stuff but I'm pretty sure Dave won the award with his "Psychodrama" album in 2019? Either way he won some prominent album of the year award and he has just released his second album, is it too late for his new one to be in contention for this award? He will win it next year if not eligible for this year. The second album is brilliant. Casuals will learn about Dave this year for sure. Truly bringing UK rappers above US for the first time in history. 

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Thoughts: 

Arlo Parks - Not heard 

Berwyn - Not heard 

Black Country, New Road - Only really heard what's been on the radio, wasn't great, I assumed they're posh kids, and that comma is annoying so haven't been motivated to listen further

Celeste - Not Heard

Floating Points/Pharaoh Sanders - I really like this, pumped it quite a bit on release. Would be a worthy winner

Ghetts - Not heard

Hannah Peel - Very nice this, yep would be happy with this as a winner 

Laura Mvula - Haven't heard this record, but not a fan of previous stuff so not interested in hearing it

Mogwai - Excellent album. Nuff said 

Nubya Garcia - Haven't heard 

Sault - Preferred "Black Is" from last year, but not sure what the qualifying timeframe is. Anyway, splitting hairs, this is also excellent

Wolf Alice - Haven't bothered seeking this out, last one was OK, I liked the singles from that one but beyond that didn't interest me enough to listen to anything new, and can't think that I've happened upon any new tracks on the radio

 

So yeah... Sault, Mogwai, Hannah Peel or Floating Points/PS for me. Sault if pressed for one. Otherwise I thought the Dry Cleaning record was hard done by to not make the list. 

 

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34 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

The Black Midi album is ridic. 

It certainly is a glaring omission. Just don't think anybody cares anymore. It's sort of become the Smash Hits poll winners party for Mojo readers now. I don't imagine Black Midi will be losing any sleep over it.

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50 minutes ago, Jimi Shandrix said:

It certainly is a glaring omission. Just don't think anybody cares anymore. It's sort of become the Smash Hits poll winners party for Mojo readers now. I don't imagine Black Midi will be losing any sleep over it.

Could have been decent publicity for them, mind.

I see they have gigs in Edinburgh & Glasgow soon - oh, my! :wub:

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2 minutes ago, paranoid android said:

Could have been decent publicity for them, mind.

I see they have gigs in Edinburgh & Glasgow soon - oh, my! :wub:

They are an incredible live band. I had the good fortune to see them in Mono in Glasgow just before "Schlagenheim" came out. 

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On 23/07/2021 at 19:40, Jimi Shandrix said:

So, that's 2021's nominations. Overall, a pretty poor list. For me, the 3 that stand out are BCNR, FP/Pharoah and Nubya Garcia.  The winner will be either FP/Pharoah  or Sault. What does everybody else think? Does anybody still care?

Think the nominations are a lot better than 2020 horrendous list.

There is a few decent ones for me that I like: Floating Points/Hannah Peel/Sault/Mogwai. 

There is a few that wasn't on the list that I thought had a chance: Jane Weaver, Dry Cleaning and Squid.

 

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Much as I like Black Midi and want them to keep doing what they're doing, I'm gonna say it was probably right to leave them off the nominations this time. Don't think the new album hangs together as well as the first one.

Though yeah, anyone who's not seem them live yet should go and do so.

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On 23/07/2021 at 21:16, SANTAN said:

Ghetts album was brilliant. If you've not followed his career and don't follow the genre I can see why it would seem mediocre but if you're familiar with his legacy it was a brilliant album imo. 

I dont follow this kinda stuff but I'm pretty sure Dave won the award with his "Psychodrama" album in 2019? Either way he won some prominent album of the year award and he has just released his second album, is it too late for his new one to be in contention for this award? He will win it next year if not eligible for this year. The second album is brilliant. Casuals will learn about Dave this year for sure. Truly bringing UK rappers above US for the first time in history. 

I'm more of a Frank Ocean kinda guy. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

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2 minutes ago, Jimi Shandrix said:

I'm more of a Frank Ocean kinda guy. I'm a lover, not a fighter.

I have never once listened to a Frank Ocean song but he's one of those artists that I know are class. Anything you'd recommend? 

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Just now, SANTAN said:

I have never once listened to a Frank Ocean song but he's one of those artists that I know are class. Anything you'd recommend? 

Channel Orange was one of my favourite albums of the 2010's. If you don't like that, I wouldn't bother with anything else.

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