THE MERCURY PRIZE IS AN ANNUAL AWARD CELEBRATING THE TOP 12 ALBUMS OF THE YEAR. COMPARABLE TO THE TURNER PRIZE FOR ART, OR BOOKER PRIZE FOR LITERATURE, IT’S THE AWARD ‘CREDIBLE’ MUSICIANS WANT TO WIN.
With a little over a month to go until the winner is announced, we thought we’d cast an eye over the talented nominees all hoping to get their musical mitts on the £25,000 prize, and see if we could guess who the final 6 contenders will be.
But first, here are the 12 big cheeses waiting to be cut down to size:
Anohni – ‘Hopelessness’
Bat For Lashes – ‘The Bride’
David Bowie – ‘Blackstar’
Jamie Woon – ‘Making Time’
Kano – ‘Made in the Manor’
Laura Mvula – ‘The Dreaming Room’
Michael Kiwanuka – ‘Love & Hate’
Radiohead – ‘A Moon Shaped Pool’
Savages – ‘Adore Life’
Skepta – ‘Konnichiwa’
The 1975 – ‘I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it’
The Comet Is Coming – ‘Channel the Spirits’
While the big names like David Bowie and Radiohead are familiar to most of us (and a pretty safe bet to win, we reckon) there are some lesser-known musicians in the mix too.
Anohni is an interesting combination of well-known and unknown – you might recognise her as a former part of Antony and the Johnsons (previous Mercury winners). Having erased the ‘T’ from her name and replaced her former musical compatriots with digital producers, she emerges with an album entitled Hoplessness, full of unexpected pop beats. She describes this genre shift as a “Trojan horse”, a way “to bring big ideas to the masses”. A sentence that is in no way patronising at all…
Album title-wise you’d imagine Savages’ Adore Life to be a pretty stark contrast to Anohni’s work, but it’s got its own dark moments too.
The award for naming-albums-after-the-creepy-text-you-sent-your-significant-other-this-morning, goes to The 1975 with I like it when you sleep, for you are so beautiful yet so unaware of it, which we think is a serious contender, despite it narrowly missing out on our top 6.
And so, back to the big prediction. After serious consideration, maximum guessing, and rapid research, we bring you the 6 artists who will definitely/probably/maybe make it to the final:
Result? We think Bowie’s got it in the bag.
And aside from the obvious fact that 2016 has been all about Bowie, the album is just so good. Skepta’s a big player, especially with all the hype surrounding the grime scene this year. But there’s always the chance of a curve ball like The Comet is Coming.
So music-lovers, what we take away from this precise exercise in guesswork, is that when all’s said and done, we are essentially clueless. But we’ve had a lot of fun finding out about some new artists and albums, and we await the announcement of the winner with eager ears!
If you’ve got any inside info, psychic visions, or guesses like ours, get in touch. We’re ready to hear your predictions, and battle it out…
