First things first – I love the Mercury Awards (not the Merrrrrcury awards, stick to the piano Jools) as they are a good chance to discover bands you may not have heard of, and also cement the work of bands who you probably have heard of. This year’s nominees were very deserving, and provided one of the more intriguing debates as to who would actually win. The early favourites were Radiohead and The Last Shadow Puppets, then Elbow and Rachel Unthank were tipped, and up to last night Burial and Laura Marling (my original pick for the winner) were supposed to be in the running as well. Throw in the ‘will he, won’t he?’ fuss over Burial appearing or not, and it makes for a very interesting year for the Merrrrrrrrrrcury Prize (sorry).

If there’s one thing that the Mercury judges don’t like, it’s a no-show. That or removing yourself as a nominee – Damon Albarn, that means you. Burial, for whatever reason, chose not to appear, and in doing so ruled himself out. The Banksy of the garage scene revealed his identity in August, along with the statement, “"I'm a lowkey person and I just want to make some tunes, nothing else”, which would indicate that he wants no part of the famed glamorous music lifestyle, as well as explaining his non-appearance. Good for him. It’s hard for a new, interesting artist to retain any intrigue or mystique, especially in this fast food culture of ours where information is a premium, and that information has to be available as quickly as possible. But for the lesser known nominees, the real prize is getting nominated in the first place, and getting the chance for exposure, and of course a few album sales on top. Whether Burial would have won or not, we’ll never know, but history dictates that the outside chances usually have more of a chance than the established bands, such as in 2005 when Anthony & The Johnsons pipped a mass of more well known bands to the post.

But the winners were Elbow, and just like one of the BBC2 pundit said, no one could begrudge them winning. Elbow have consistently made good albums with good songs, and in Guy Garvey they have an excellent frontman and one of the nicer guys in music. But was it really the best album of the year? To be honest, any one of Elbow, Laura Marling, Radiohead, Adele, British Sea Power or The Last Shadow Puppets could have won, and no-one would have begrudged them. But I am of the opinion that Elbow won more for their collection of work, rather than for this one album, The Seldom Seen Kid. It is a good album, and in Grounds For Divorce they have one of the songs of the year, but to me it feels too much like Martin Scorsese winning the Academy Award for The Departed, a good film but not his best piece of work. The fact that he hadn’t won before, but been nominated numerous times, added up to what had to be his year. The same goes for Elbow. Worthy winners, but maybe not the best overall.

Posted In Features, Sep 10 2008. Words - Paul