Novelty Market Bet: (Music, UK & Ire {Mercury Prize 2016})

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The (Hyundai) Mercury Prize 'promotes the best of UK and Irish music' and the artists who produce it. This is done primarily through the celebration of the 12 ‘Albums of the Year’. The Mercury Prize for Album of the Year is the music equivalent to the Booker Prize for literature, or the Turner Prize for art.

Judges (below), may (again) tend to lean again towards the left-field.

Phil Alexander - Editor-in-Chief, Kerrang!, Mojo and Q
Clara Amfo – Broadcaster
Jarvis Cocker - Musician and Songwriter
Jamie Cullum - Musician and Broadcaster
Harriet Gibsone - Music News Editor; The Guardian/TheGuardian.com
Will Hodgkinson - Chief Rock & Pop Critic The Times
Shahid Khan aka Naughty Boy - Musician, Songwriter and Producer
Annie Mac - DJ and Broadcaster
Ellie Rowsell from Wolf Alice - Musician and Songwriter
Kate Tempest - Musician, Poet and Author
Jessie Ware - Musician and Songwriter
Jeff Smith - Head of Music, BBC 6 Music and BBC Radio 2

This year the public participated in the voting process. Only six albums will make it through to the ceremony as "finalists", rather than 12 as in previous years. Fans choose one album to proceed to the final via an online vote, while judges will select the next five. The public voting has now closed.

Sure, ‘Blackstar’, David Bowie’s 25th final studio album, could be the easy obvious winner, however if he was still around perhaps he'd be happy enough to see it going to some new emerging talent as anyone else.

Live final is on BBC Four on 15th September.



My wildcard prediction: Adore Life (itunes link) from the
'Post-punk indie noise revival' Savages (@ 20/1 currently).

The other contenders can be viewed here http://www.mercuryprize.com/shortlist

the groutch

who is 20/1? don't see any bigger than 8s

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the groutch wrote: »

who is 20/1? don't see any bigger than 8s

Savages, but not showing up on OC, have to dig around for it under novelties in places like Lads@21 & Sky@19. WH had 15, but cut to 9's recently with most others.

There is a good chance it'll swing out to mid-20's on the back of Bowie hype, but at least three or four judge profiles will likely 'Adore Life' and odds will start to collapse again from Sept.

Only worth considering as a wildcard selection on a safe Accum, due to the nature of the market, and the historical fact that the 'incredibly annoying' 'M-people' once won this prize.

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Savages still available at very good prices @21-26.

Would still avoid the plain obvious in this (Bowie @1.7 {avg})
of no value, and the folks behind this comp usually like to surprise their peers.

Others to consider:
Skepta @9 (shortening)
Michael Kiwanuka @11 (receiving a lot of media exposure lately).

With just 3 days to go, worth keeping an eye on sudden market changes and media coverage.
The judges have likely made their minds, just a question of mutual consent in final debates.

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Just 24hrs to go and Kano is getting a little bit of early trading action.

It's grime rap or something. Album is actually fairly decent production wise, and in certainly with a chance.
Not sure the judges would be unanimous with it all the same, maybe just 3 or 4 will have it 1st preference.

Worth a consideration available @17 in some locations, and others have it lower @9 (2ndF).
The big question remains whether or not outright fav Bowie can be toppled.

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Skepta is back up as 2nd fav @5, getting the most bets outside of bowie.
You can get it @11 if you know where to look!

The 1975 would certainly get the public vote, poptastic tunes indeed.
Perhaps not avant-garde enough for the boffins.
The singers mum is a fairly famous actress.

Hoping also savages could still be the value surprise dark outsider,
this event is very hard to predict unlike most other novelties.

Starts on BBC4 in a few hours time!

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SJ left the gates open @11 for a bit to long, as it dropped everywhere else to around 3.5.
Not sure I'd agree, but from from the best '238 UK & Irish albums of 2016', this won the final prize:



The '75 rightly so got the public's vote.