And so it’s out. This year’s Mercury Prize shortlist has elbowed its way into the clammy sleepiness of summer’s “silly season,” bringing with it an acknowledgment of a load of young British (though, mostly English) talent and also a fair number of big names. The list itself, featuring everyone from King Krule and Jorja Smith to Lily Allen and Florence and the Machine, highlights not only how much more the Mercury Prize is giving a nod to already massively established artists, but also how much more siloed listening communities are becoming. When you think about your own habits and scan through the list, how many of the albums do you think you’ve listened to all the way through? How many did you hear the just singles of, then think, ‘they’re already quite massive, cba with the whole thing’? And if you were to chat to your friends about it a the pub later, how much crossover do you think you would find on their most-listened playlists?
As streaming and algorithms pick apart the strands of the album package, turning each artist into the stats behind their individual track plays, you may not find that many casual music fans who’ve dipped into all – or even most of – the great albums on this year’s shortlist. When you look back on a year like 2011, it read more like a largely BBC Radio 6Music-friendly list, with a few exceptions. James Blake, Elbow, Anna Calvi, Ghostpoet, Everything Everything, Metronomy, PJ Harvey and King Creosote & Jon Hopkins all rubbed shoulders with more Radio 1 acts like Adele and Katy B. The usual jazzy outsider came in the form of Gwilym Simcock, while Tinie Tempah – in the time before black British music really stepped into the mainstream – functioned as the so-called “urban music” crossover.
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This year, a Gallagher brother is on the list. In this country, it doesn’t get much more ‘let’s shout out a very rich and successful person’ than that. And that’s not to say that big artists like Noel Gallagher and Arctic Monkeys didn’t make well-received albums (which weren’t to my particular taste, but that’s not the point). Instead, it’s interesting to see how the Mercury Prize itself is evolving and what sort of place it’s looking to occupy in the industry. As we saw last year, a shortlisting can boost sales for a smaller act, and a win can do even better. J Hus sold an extra 18,000 copies of his 2017 album Common Sense in the six weeks after he was shortlisted for the prize, according to Music Week. When Sampha won last year’s prize overall, his Spotify streams reportedly shot up by 672 percent compared to the week before his win. In a business where labels are still looking to find ways to shift copies of whole albums, a Mercury win spells good potential news for the mostly major labels who look after the bigger names on this list.
But, in all of this, it’s important to remember that some brilliant younger acts – particularly jazz group Sons of Kemet – have been recognised. We’ve spent time with nominees Novelist, Jorja Smith, King Krule and Ellie and Joff from Wolf Alice, hearing about the work they poured into these albums. From rap to indie to pop-R&B, they all show that the UK is not only fostering some ridiculous skill but doing so with a spirit of independence. Wolf Alice and King Krule are both on indie labels, Jorja Smith releases through a label services set-up and Novelist self-releases on his Mmmyeah Records label. It is a bit sad to see that acts like Shame, SOPHIE and Let’s Eat Grandma haven’t made the cut, but there are still beautiful and textured bodies of work on the list in any case. For now, you can return to regular heatwave programming: sitting outside, mumbling about how “maybe it’s actually too much now” and wondering when you last listened to an album all the way through in one sitting.
Here’s the full list of nominees:
Arctic Monkeys, Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino
Everything Everything, A Fever Dream
Everything Is Recorded by Richard Russell, Everything Is Recorded
Florence and the Machine, High as Hope
Jorja Smith, Lost & Found
King Krule, The OOZ
Lily Allen, No Shame
Nadine Shah, Holiday Destination
Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, Who Built the Moon?
Novelist, Novelist Guy
Sons of Kemet, Your Queen Is a Reptile
Wolf Alice, Visions of a Life
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