The Curse of the Mercury Music Prize

Amazotheamazing

Just a warning to all those Artic Monkey lovers out there, an ancient curse has just fallen upon them, well a 12 year old rumour has anyway.

http://enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article1174207.ece


http://www.rawkstar.net/features/4



Yes, it will take plenty of drugs for the Artic Monkey's to survive the ills of this mean-spirited act of sabotage.

odhran

Is it just me, or was that Independent article rather poorly written (shocking, I know)? At times it seems to imply that the most popular albums are automatically the best:
"Perhaps stung by the ensuing criticism, the following year's shortlist contained no out-and-out pop acts - and as if keen to confirm its seriousness, the panel chose to ignore the hugely successful debuts of Oasis and Supergrass in order to reflect the current hip trend of the trip-hop "Bristol Sound", plumping for Portishead's Dummy over Tricky's Maxinquaye."
In my opinion, Portishead's Dummy is far superior to the other two mentioned. Also P.J. Harvey went on to make another very fine album after Stories... and one can hardly blame her decision not to make more music on the Mercury Music Prize...

Lunar Junkie

odhran wrote:

...and one can hardly blame her decision not to make more music on the Mercury Music Prize...

When did that happen? As far as I was aware she's currently working on new songs for a follow-up to Uh Huh Her. She played two of them at a gig a couple of months ago, they're on the piano.

odhran

Lunar Junkie wrote:

When did that happen? As far as I was aware she's currently working on new songs for a follow-up to Uh Huh Her. She played two of them at a gig a couple of months ago, they're on the piano.

P.J. Harvey was alleged to have given up releasing albums and touring. There's some story of her making the announcement at a Libertines gig in Paris a few years ago, but I'm foggy on the details. She has clearly changed her mind though, what with her performing at E.P. last week. I heard the new songs, and good they were. I was just referring to the article.

John

odhran wrote:

P.J. Harvey was alleged to have given up releasing albums and touring. There's some story of her making the announcement at a Libertines gig in Paris a few years ago, but I'm foggy on the details. She has clearly changed her mind though, what with her performing at E.P. last week. I heard the new songs, and good they were. I was just referring to the article.

The NME ran a story last year (I think) at the end of the Uh-Huh Her tour. She said that she was done touring (referring to touring with that album) and was going to head back to the studio. The NME decided this meant she was retiring altogether. She had never retired and was taking the usual between albums break.

I don't know how anyone could think Uh-Huh Her is by any means a failure. Sold about as well if not better than her other albums (barring Stories... which got a lot more publicity) and got great reviews from fans and critics. New album out later this year/early next year. From what she played at EP I'm looking forward to it.

odhran

I agree, I really enjoyed Uh Huh Her. I didn't realise I'd been taken in by the NME hype machine though :eek: Nor did I realise a new album is on the way so soon- me is very excited now!

Mr Moon

Here's a list of the previous winners

1992 - Primal Scream – Screamadelica
1993 - Suede – Suede
1994 - M People – Elegant Slumming
1995 - Portishead – Dummy
1996 - Pulp – Different Class
1997 - Roni Size/Reprazent – New Forms
1998 - Gomez – Bring It On
1999 - Talvin Singh – Ok
2000 - Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
2001 - PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2002 - Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper
2003 - Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
2004 - Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
2005 - Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
2006 - Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

Dreamcrusher

Mr Moon wrote:

Here's a list of the previous winners

1992 - Primal Scream – Screamadelica
1993 - Suede – Suede
1994 - M People – Elegant Slumming
1995 - Portishead – Dummy
1996 - Pulp – Different Class
1997 - Roni Size/Reprazent – New Forms
1998 - Gomez – Bring It On
1999 - Talvin Singh – Ok
2000 - Badly Drawn Boy – The Hour of Bewilderbeast
2001 - PJ Harvey – Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea
2002 - Ms. Dynamite – A Little Deeper
2003 - Dizzee Rascal – Boy in Da Corner
2004 - Franz Ferdinand – Franz Ferdinand
2005 - Antony and the Johnsons – I Am a Bird Now
2006 - Arctic Monkeys – Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not

All i can say is 1994 must've been a very slow year

Xavi6

Well if this 'curse' is as damaging to careers as is being made out then thank God Muse didn't win it!!

tywy

Dreamcrusher wrote:

All i can say is 1994 must've been a very slow year

brilliant! probably true!

Mr Moon

94 Nominees...

* M People – Elegant Slumming
* Blur – Parklife
* Ian McNabb – Head Like A Rock
* Shara Nelson – What Silence Knows
* Michael Nyman – The Piano Concerto and MGV
* The Prodigy – Music for the Jilted Generation
* Pulp – His'n'Hers
* Take That – Everything Changes
* Therapy? – Troublegum
* Paul Weller – Wild Wood

Prodigy, Therapy? Paul Weller even Take That is better than M People!!!

Collie D

Also Definitely Maybe although that was October/November so I assume it missed the cut-off? Just confirms what I've always thought about the Mercury TBH

loyatemu

they were guilty of tokenism in the early days of the award - M People won because they wanted to seem less elitist and indie-centric. Ditto Roni Size a few years later (with what was a very dull drum n' bass album).

They have moved away from this recently, though the shortlist still seems to have slots reserved for folk and jazz entries.

94 probably should have gone to Blur (in hindsight the only genuine classic on the list) or the Prodigy (a great album that is very much of its time).

John

loyatemu wrote:

94 probably should have gone to Blur (in hindsight the only genuine classic on the list) or the Prodigy (a great album that is very much of its time).

The Nyman album is great too.

Jonny Arson

Collie D wrote:

Also Definitely Maybe although that was October/November so I assume it missed the cut-off? Just confirms what I've always thought about the Mercury TBH

Definitely Maybe was released August 1994 so it missed the cut-off for that year but it was nominated in 1995