Mercury Prize: Elbow win it

I write this at a gig, not Grosvenor House Hotel, but who in music can ignore the Mercury?

Once again confounding the favourites predictions, this oddball award has proved that there's no point on betting, unless you follow your hunch.

Look at the panel's make-up. They were never going to go for Burial or Portico Quartet.

Elbow have released some stellar albums and subsequently been dumped through their career. The Seldom Seen Kid is a career highlight, supported to the hilt by Polydor's recently excellent press office. Hats off to them; they're doing everything right.

We at musicOMH are in all sorts of ways delighted for Guy Garvey and his crew - the Elbow frontman was a delightful interviewee earlier this year. And he's a dandy advert for black shirts. Three nights at London's Roundhouse later this autumn should prove even hotter for them.

The Mercury's raison d'etre is called into question every year, which provides useful column inches for some publications. But whatever one thinks of the selection process for the judges (only some of whom ever seem to want to be known), it's an excellent advert for the UK's music.

Whatever troubles happen to be facing some in the industry, the Mercury nominees give a useful cross-section of music talent from these isles to a world that loves what we do.

Comments

[Tony]

WTF - Elbow have won - thats like painting the world beige! I love the Burial album but it was never going to win. Radiohead miss out again!!!

[John Murphy]

Sorry Tony, can't agree with you there.

The Elbow album, like their previous three, is fantastic. It's incredibly lazy to compare them to Coldplay and Athlete and the like, just because they're resolutely unglamourous and have a fair bit of 'northern grit'.

The Seldom Seen Kid is filled with Guy Garvey's little touches of lyrical genius - check out the marvellous opening salvo of Starlings, which has the purest, most self-deprecating declaration of love you'll ever hear: "I guess I'm asking you to back a horse that's good for glue", not to mention the blissfully romantic line of "you are the only thing in any room you're in". Anyone who's ever been in a relationship who can't identify with that line...well, they haven't truly been in a relationship I'd say.

Grounds For Divorce is a masterclass in songwriting, a devastatingly poignant comment on the vicious circle of alcoholism, while One Day Like This is quickly becoming my song of the year - windswept, epic and romantic.

I would say that it's not quite as good as Leaders Of The Free World - which I still listen to regularly now, three years on after its release - but it's certainly one of my albums of the year.

Yes, if Estelle had won it would have been beige. And if Adele had won, serious questions would have been asked (and I think I'm in the minority in quite liking the Adele album).

As for Radiohead, yes it's a superb album, but I like to think the point of the Mercurys is to introduce the public to work they've never heard of before. Most people are pretty quick to decide if they like Radiohead or not by now - if they have, it's a given that they've already got In Rainbows.

Elbow, by contrast, have released four magnificent albums, play some stunning, soul-stirring live sets, and are still pretty much unknown by the general public.

And although, this doesn't have anything to do with things, Guy Garvey is one of the nicest, funniest guys in the business and his show on 6Music on Sunday evenings should be required listening to anyone even vaguely interesting in music.

[Nic Oliver]

A great album and proof that a band can grow into a truly class act. The last two albums were good but lacked a certain drive, which The Seldom Scene Kid displays by the bucket load.

A personal triumph for Garvey and his mates, but I can't help thinking they are going to lack the crossover appeal of some previous winners.

And I still think Rachel Unthank should have won!