I'm One Step Ahead Of The Game...

Oh dear, the NME has come up with a truly ghastly list of possible Mercury nominations:

Candie Payne - 'I Wish I Could Have Loved You More'
Jarvis Cocker - 'Jarvis'
Jamie T - 'Panic Prevention'
Arctic Monkeys - 'Favourite Worst Nightmare'
Amy Winehouse - 'Back To Black'
Klaxons - 'Myths Of The Near Future'
Gruff Rhys - 'Candylion'
Razorlight - 'Razorlight'
Dizzee Rascal - 'Maths & English'
Editors - 'An End Has A Start'
The Cribs - 'Men's Needs, Women's Needs, Whatever'
Maps - 'We Can Create'
The Enemy - 'We'll Live And Die in These Towns'
The View - 'Hats Off To The Buskers'
The Twang - 'Love It When I Feel Like This'
Bat For Lashes - 'Fur And Gold'
Cherry Ghost - 'Thirst For Romance'
Kasabian - 'Empire'
Mika - 'Life In Cartoon Motion'
Patrick Wolf - 'The Magic Position'
The Chemical Brothers - 'We Are The Night'
Joss Stone - 'Introducing Joss Stone'
1990s - 'Cookies'
Kaiser Chiefs - 'Yours Truly Angry Mob'
Calvin Harris - 'I Created Disco'
Just Jack - 'Overtones'

Well, credit to them for remembering Patrick Wolf and Bat For Lashes, both of which had slipped my mind - but the rest of it? The Enemy, The View, The Twang, The Cribs - not only is there a common theme in the lack of imagination in their monikers, there's also a common thread in their complete lack of musical inspiration. British guitar music is currently in the worst state it's ever been in during my lifetime if this is the best we have to offer the world. I couldn't really resent a nomination for Jarvis, even if that album was nowhere near as good as I'd hoped. Pitiful copyists Editors can go home, as can the ludicrously overrated Joss Stone. Calvin Harris' embarrassing appropriation of electro-pop merely has novelty value - it can't possibly win a major prize, can it? I'm also wondering if the surprisingly well received Happy Mondays comeback album might sneak a nomination, even if the public don't seem to care for it.

The Usual Pointless Predicting...

According to the Mercury Music Prize website, the nominations for the 2007 award are being announced tomorrow morning. Does anyone actually care this year? The publicity campaign seems to have been almost non-existent.

I'm going to stick my neck out and predict a nomination, and probable victory for Amy Winehouse and 'Back to Black'. I just can't see the award going to yet another tedious and derivative indie record this year, but I usually get these things hopelessly wrong - and Klaxons would also be a highly predictable winner.

It's highly unlikely that Arctic Monkeys will win two years in a row, but I can't see 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' not at least scoring a nomination. I'd also suggest that Dizzee Rascal is likely to get another nomination for the patchy, but occasionally brilliant 'Maths and English'. I'd be surprised if The Long Blondes and Cinematic Orchestra's slow burning triumph 'Ma Fleur' weren't nominated too, the latter being a strong outsider's bet to win.

The real competition this year is for the token jazz nomination, British jazz being in particularly good health at the moment. John Surman, Abram Wilson, Soweto Kinch, Ingrid Laubrock and Tom Cawley's Curios must all be possible contenders. Even more plausible, however, are the superficially skronky Led Bib and the genuinely superb Fraud. I'd like to see the latter win the prize.

Other artists I'd like to see nominated - The Twilight Sad, Jeremy Warmsley, Kode 9 and Spaceape, Skream!, Wiley, Flipron, Broken Family Band (did Track and Field put up the cash for 'Hello Love' to make the longlist?), Basquiat Strings, Fridge, Dani Siciliano, Alasdair Roberts.

Bloc Party's 'A Weekend In The City' took a pretty harsh critical lambasting - will the Mercury Judges see any merit in it?

It's all pointless anyway, how often does the best British album of the year actually win this award?